Canadian government recognizes high rate of hospital acquired infections

As noted a few days ago, a new World Health Organization (WHO) report has identified Canada as having a high rate of hospital acquired infections. Among reporting countries, the Canadian rate of 11.6% was second only to New Zealand's rate of 12%. (New Zealand, like Canada, has very few hospital beds).

Now, thanks to a Postmedia report, we know that the Public Health Canada (the main federal government agency responsible for public health) doesn't dispute the figures.

At 11.6 per cent, Canada's rate contrasts poorly with the U.S. rate of 4.5 per cent and Europe's rate of 7.1 per cent, according to data in WHO's Report on the Burden of Endemic Health Care-Associated Infection Worldwide 2011.

Responding to a Postmedia News inquiry, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) did not dispute WHO's finding - and indeed WHO typically bases its reports on data provided by the respective countries....

``The data was taken from surveys and the objective was to determine the prevalence of health care associated infections in patients of all ages admitted to Canadian acute care hospitals participating in Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP),'' a PHAC spokesperson said in a statement.

The Feds note the primary role of the provinces for hospitals:

``The responsibility for managing hospital acquired infections is a provincial and territorial responsibility. The Public Health Agency of Canada offers assistance when asked by provinces and territories.''

Accurate enough. But as many have observed, success has many fathers but failure is a..., well, it's an orphan.

Regardless, we do need to find out why Canada has a higher rate.

Besides the United States, countries registering the lowest percentages included Germany (3.6 per cent), France (4.4 per cent), Slovenia (4.6 per cent) and Norway (5.1 per cent).

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 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...

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...

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog