Skip to main content

The LHINs in Disneyland. I just wish that what is happening to Ontario hospitals was only in fantasy land.

The Windsor Star (not usually my favourite editorialists) has an interesting editorial today on the LHINs (and the Ombudsman report):

Obviously there are many issues the government needs to deal with. And how is it that Matthews is only now getting around to establishing standards for community engagement between LHINs and the public? Conservative Leader Tim Hudak calls these networks "unaccountable, unelected, secretive and entitled health-care bureaucracies." NDP Leader Andrea Horwath called the report a "damning indictment of a system that is unaccountable and completely unresponsive to the community whose interests it should represent." Both are right. Horwath makes sense when she calls for a full review. Marin calls the LHINs in general "defensive and recalcitrant," with an attitude that says "We did nothing wrong and we won't change." For that reason alone, the health minister must step in now.

If you need more evidence of the 'We did nothing wrong and won't change'  attitude check out this Brockville Recorder Times story about the South East LHIN.  It's like these guys wouldn't say 'cookie' if they were caught cramming one into their mouths. 

So it is really, really hard to believe that much change is going to happen.

These guys are the front men for some pretty nasty changes to our health care system, so it's likely the LHINs were never going to be open and transparent.  But at least now more people are on to that. 

And check out this story to see one more example of how hospital restructuring is going astray, this time in Kitchener and London.  Officials have been planning for years to transfer 50 hospital beds from London to Kitchener, with 56 workers moving.

"Some had already bought homes in Kitchener and their spouses had quit London jobs in anticipation of the September move.  But now officials in London and Kitchener say they don’t know when the bed transfer will occur and when the London workers will be offered the new jobs."  Pity the patients and pity the workers.

Finally, Mayor Mike Bradley of Sarnia just sent me an article indicating that one LHIN is getting leadership advice from Disney. 

I'm not kidding.  -- But, you know, in some ways, it figures.

I do, however, agree with one point Health Minister Deb Matthews told the Toronto Sun:  "The LHINs are relatively new bodies and I think most people probably don't understand the success that they're having". 

No, most people don't.


dallan@cupe.ca

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data.   This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization.   Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion.  That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year.   The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million.     In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations...

The long series of failures of private clinics in Ontario

For many years, OCHU/CUPE has been concerned the Ontario government would transfer public hospital surgeries, procedures and diagnostic tests to private clinics. CUPE began campaigning in earnest against this possibility in the spring of 2007 with a tour of the province by former British Health Secretary, Frank Dobson, who talked about the disastrous British experience with private surgical clinics. The door opened years ago with the introduction of fee-for-service hospital funding (sometimes called Quality Based Funding). Then in the fall of 2013 the government announced regulatory changes to facilitate this privatization. The government announced Request for Proposals for the summer of 2014 to expand the role of "Independent Health Facilities" (IHFs).  With mass campaigns to stop the private clinic expansion by the Ontario Health Coalition the process slowed.   But it seems the provincial Liberal government continues to push the idea.  Following a recent second...

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staffing.   Less and less of hospital spending is on staff.   Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development.  It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staff per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staffing capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another...