The community has the right to know: superbug outbreak in Niagara

Tomorrow, a health care rally will be held at 3 pm outside the Greater Niagara General Hospital. The theme is "Residents have a right to know!" (Notice for the rally is below.) The rally follows the long delay in the announcement that patients had died with the infectious superbug C. Difficile, creating what has become a major national new story.

The hospital has tried to justify the long delay in telling the community of the deaths at the Welland and Greater Niagara hospitals because an 'outbreak' had not been declared.

But the outbreak issue is beside the point.

It is actually quite tricky to determine when an 'outbreak' has occurred. In any case, superbugs are in our hospitals all the time, ‘outbreak’ declared or not. Incredibly, this is sometimes used as an excuse NOT to report superbug associated deaths. To my mind, it is in fact all the more reason to report the facts to the public.

Past campaigns by OCHU and others forced government to require hospitals to publicly report ALL superbug infections. Likewise, the government should require hospitals to provide standardized reports of the incidence of patients who die with superbug infections. Then the ‘outbreak excuse’ is moot.

Only then will we know the true extent of the problem. I'm betting that an informed public will require public authorities to take the steps necessary to deal with this problem (steps well beyond asking people to wash their hands).

As it stands now, the Niagara hospital actually provided MORE information to the public than is required.

Re: HEALTH CARE RALLY

RESIDENTS HAVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!

WHERE: Greater Niagara General Hospital

DATE: Wednesday, July 6, 2011

TIME: 3:00 p.m.

SPEAKERS: Jim Diodati – Mayor, Niagara Falls

Kim Craitor – M.P.P., Niagara Falls

Andrea Horvath – Leader of the Ontario NDP

Susan Salzer – Yellow Shirt Brigade

For any further information, please call Wayne Gates, President, CAW Local 199 and Niagara Falls City Councillor at 905-682-2611, ext. 226 or cell phone 905-328-9532.

Issued by:

Wayne Gates

Niagara Falls City Councillor and

President, CAW Local 199

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