Defend Public Healthcare

Eight senior doctors at Burnaby General Hospital have raised concerns about infection control at the hospital, after 473 patients were seriously infected with C. difficile. Eighty-four of those patients died. The eight doctors (including 6 department heads) wrote that " current CDAD [C. difficile]  infection control  management at Burnaby  Hospital... is a serious hazard to the patient population. ... Such is the degree of the CDAD  problem  and the ineffectual response to it, that we believe it could objectively be considered medical negligence. " The doctors made 16 recommendations to resolve the problem, including the immediate institution of enhanced cleaning within  hospital  units.  The doctors point to a lack of enhanced cleaning of high C.difficile medical units despite a recommendation from the infection control  committee following the late-2011 outbreaks. Hospital Employees Union spokesperson Margi Blamey said  a foc...

The failure of a public private partnership (P3) long term care home in BC is driving down its workers wages once again. Our sister union, the Hospital Employees' Union (HEU) states : At Parksville’s Stanford Place, more than 200 health care workers were told by an arbitrator that they must accept significant wage rollbacks and benefit cuts in order to keep the facility’s private operator financially viable.  The rollbacks take more than $1.25 million out of wages and benefits in each of the next two years and will leave some of the workers among the lowest-paid health care workers on the Island with wage cuts as deep as $3 an hour. The HEU opposed the rollbacks arguing workers should not have to shoulder the costs for the operator’s failed business plan or the Vancouver Island Health Authority’s (VIHA's) failure to recognize that the public-private partnership (P3) was not viable. Stanford Place was approved for construction by VIHA in 2006 as a P3 and opened in 2008. T...

Problems in B.C.'s contracted out health care support services have deepened.  In March,  Acciona Facility Services  won  the contract for housekeeping services at the Royal Jubilee Hospital, displacing Compass.  The move displaced about 250 workers. The displaced workers began bumping less senior employees working for Compass in other health care facilities. However, the Compass workers at those facilities will be there for only weeks  before a new company ,  Marquise ( also  owned  by Compass), takes over the facilities on Oct. 1.   Employees and the union fear that the same workers may be laid off again. The Hospital Employees Union (HEU) is fighting back.  “Once again, we are witnessing the failure of privatization to protect decent jobs and services in our communities,”  says  HEU secretary-business manager Bonnie Pearson. “And once again health care workers are facing an uncertain future for themse...

The BC Health Coalition has released a report showing that for-profit clinics are charging patients extra to jump the queue for services covered by public health care:  "Research conducted over three months (June – August, 2010) by BCHC staff has revealed that for-profit clinics across the province continue to openly charge patients additional fees to jump the queue for services that are publicly insured. " The BC Health Coalition’s report can be found here.   Also this week, the BC government announced extra funding for 'patient focused funding' (aka price based funding), a funding model that has some similarities to 'fee for service' funding used in the US.   BC is   reported to be increasing this form of funding to 20% of hospital funding by 2012-13.  The NDP has called on the government to audit private clinics as they could be getting a share of 'patient-focused funding' for surgeries and MRIs. BC Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon has ...