Freedom of information, expense info, and consultant reports coming to Ontario hospitals

Another change proposed in the Broader Public Sector Accountability Act (Bil 122) is to make hospitals subject to the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act (FIPPA) as of January 1, 2012.

The change is some time off: the government, with some reason, claims that it will take the hospitals time to prepare for freedom of information (FOI) requests. But once in place, records from the previous five years will be subject to FOI requests, the government assures us. LHINs have been subject to FOI requests since 2005 (the year they were established). Personal health information is excluded from FOI requests.

The Act also sets some requirements for the public posting of expense claim information by designated broader public sector organizations. The proposed legislation requires Local Health Integration Networks and hospitals to post information about expense claims onto their public web sites -- other broader public sector organizations may be required by regulation to do likewise at a later date. The Ministry of Health and LTC will issue directives setting out what must be reported (s. 8.2). Reportedly, the reports will apply to the expenses of senior executives. Regulations may later expand the requirement to report expense claim information to other broader public sector organizations (s.9.2)

As well, LHINs and hospitals will be required to report annually on their use of consultants. What, exactly, must be reported will be announced later, as the Ministry of Health and LTC is given the power to issue directives on this (s. 5.2 & 6.2). Again, other broader public sector organizations may be made subject to this requirement through regulation (s.7.1)

Consultants are defined (s. 1.1) as people other than employees who provide expert or strategic advice through a contract. So no -- hospitals will not be required to report on contracting-out for other services -- services (like housekeeping or food) which eat up a lot more of the budget than when services are contracted out to consultants.

Too bad.

dallan@cupe.ca

Comments

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...

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog