Forcing hospital patients down the highway and into a retirement home. This is the solution?

The proposed medium term remedy for the Windsor Essex hospital bed crisis is to open 62 interim long term care beds at a Leamington retirement home next month. The Leamington Court home is reportedly part of Allegro Residences, which, in turn, is part of the Maestro Group, which is based in Montreal and operates residences across the country with a staff of 2,500.

This, of course, raises the issue of shipping public hospital patients off to retirement homes -- homes which are overwhelmingly run on a for-profit basis. Serious questions have been raised about the quality of care for hospital patients at retirement homes.

And in Windsor, doubt is also being raised about the wisdom of shipping hospital patients miles away. Any forced movement of hospital patients can have a serious health impact. But there is also concern that shipping Windsor seniors miles down the road to Leamington will leave them isolated from their loved ones and put more strain on families.

"I think this will be a lot of trouble for people from Windsor. If they only have an elderly spouse and no family members to drive the spouse back and forth, how will they visit?" said David Wonham, a retired physician who's working with Windsor Regional Hospital as an adviser. "It's very distressing to me."

Patients who don't accept the first available "LTC" bed will face a $600-per-day fee to remain at the hospital.

The LHIN CEO, Gary Switzer, has acknowledged the move will be difficult for some seniors and said the LHIN is looking into transportation arrangements for family members.

Another possibility is housing some seniors in Windsor Regional Hospital's new complex continuing care unit, which has room for 20 extra beds. But that would depend on funding from the province.

dallan@cupe.ca

Comments

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th

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 in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2.

Paramedic Services in Canada: Structure, Privatization, Unionization and other issues

Governance and Funding : While police and fire services are usually municipal services, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are typically controlled by provincial governments. In Ontario, regional municipal governments have responsibility for delivering and funding EMS. But even in Ontario the province plays a key role, strictly regulating EMS, providing funding for 50% of the approved land ambulance costs, and paying 100% of the approved costs for air ambulance, dispatch, base hospitals, First Nation EMS, and for territories without municipal government. Delivery : Like police and fire services, EMS is predominantly a publicly provided service in Canada. But businesses have now made some significant in-roads into EMS, primarily Medavie, a private corporation based in the Maritimes that describes itself as not-for-profit. Medavie goes back over 70 years, with its roots in health insurance. It still operates Medavie Blue Cross with 1,900 employees. It now a

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog