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ER Crisis: 221 short stay hospital beds to be funded across province!

Here's a modest victory for supporters of public health care.  The Ministry of Health and LTC announced that London Health Sciences Centre will operate 21 new short-stay beds.  Another 23 hospital will also get such beds.   
The short-stay beds will be located in hospital in-patient wards and only patients admitted through the ER will have access to these beds – where they may stay up to 72 hours before being discharged or transferred to another unit in the hospital. The beds are designed to help improve the flow in ERs.
The Ministry adds the following:
  • Short-stay beds have been introduced in response to the work of Dr. David Walker, Provincial Lead, Alternate Level of Care (ALC), who is helping to ensure that ALC patients receive care in the right setting.
  • Across the province, 221 beds in 24 hospitals will be funded as part of the short-stay program.
This sounds like a positive first step to address dangerously high hospital bed occupancy and the back-ups in the ERs.  For the London news story click here.  No word yet on which other 23 hospitals will receive new beds.  Stay tuned.  
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  1. AnonymousMay 7, 2011 at 7:08 PM

    You can be sure this is only temporary until after the fall elections.

    This proves, without a doubt, hospitals across the province have been cutting beds and frontline staff recklessly and prematurely, prior to having the proper enablers in place, such as adequate LTC beds.

    In Niagara they have cut two ERs and have discovered ER wait times are now way above the provincial average and ambulance offload delays are soaring, basically because of lack of hospital beds and frontline staff.

    Recently to address this serious, potentially dangerous situation, they are implementing Xcess Plan......which is opening up extra beds in the hospital and staffing them.

    To devise this deceitful strategy, they tell us they need the best and the brightest and that is why they must be paid the highest "Sunshine" wages.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Doug AllanMay 7, 2011 at 7:15 PM

    Thanks for your comment, Pat Scholfield. FYI -- I am beginning to hear of the other 'short stay' bed that are supposed to be funded. A CUPE local leader just emailed me an announcement from Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci of funding for 9 beds at Sudbury Regional Hospital. My bet is that we will see more of this prior to the election. But if there is a majority government afterwards -- well hold on to your hat. -- Doug

    ReplyDelete

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