Defend Public Healthcare

New funding totaling $985,700 will keep 20 beds open at the Cornwall hospital until the end of the fiscal year. This should keep the "transitional care" beds opened in August running until March 31.    "At which time there are other strategies in the works," hospital CEO Jeanette Despatie said . The 20 convalescent beds were created in August to help deal with hospital overcrowding in Cornwall. Just before Christmas, Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci announced another $1.4 million for Sudbury health care-- another area with severe hospital overcrowding. In this case, the money is dedicated to home care services and  new LTC beds. This announcement follows local campaigns (by CUPE and others) to defend health services. New health care money is often announced just about now -- late in the fiscal year.    So there may be more to come in the weeks ahead.  dallan@cupe.ca

Cornwall Community Hospital has come out with a new, draft five year plan .  The plan calls for a focus on "core services".  It states: CCH has identified the need to move to a more coordinated and strategic approach to determining the breadth and scope of clinical services based on community need, available resources, capacity and talent.  CCH can not provide all services to all people and recognizes the need to employ evidence based best practices in its core service areas. This certainly fits with the McGuinty government's focus on shrinking the role of public hospitals.  The plan also, however, raises the idea of the hospital focusing on health and health care "versus being just a hospital".  This is perhaps the main tension for smaller hospitals: see their services paired back to a smaller and smaller list of 'core services' or become a hub for a range of health care services in their local community. The former tendency is certainly gain...

The Cornwall Standard Freeholder reports that the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) has established at its annual conference a committee with representatives of municipalities from all over Ontario to deal with the shortage of beds for long-term health care patients and lobby the provincial government for help.  (This sounds connected to some work by municipalities at the AMO conference reported earlier.) Cornwall mayor Bob Kilger said the AMO is putting a document together to incorporate feedback from municipalities all across the province with similar problems. Then the committee will meet with stakeholders, such as hospital officials and government representatives. Councillor Sid Gardiner added the committee should make  progress as it puts pressure on the provincial government with the weight of 90% of Ontario municipalities. Meanwhile the cuts continue.  After the closure of the adult diabetes clinic at the Northumberland Hills Hospital ...

Complaints are already emerging about government control of the new Emergency Room wait times funding.  Here's the conclusion of today's Cornwall Standard Freeholder editorial: The ministry, at least in Cornwall's case, is putting the cart before the horse with the $800,000 incentive. The money should be used to open up more long-term care beds. This would move more people out of acute care beds and go a long way in reducing unacceptable wait times. (The full editorial is here .) This isn't just in Cornwall's case.  Queen's Park in Toronto has all the control and so local hospitals (and local communities) cannot fashion local solutions that actually meet local needs. dallan@cupe.ca

It looks like we are making some progress in the Cornwall area – according to a local media report , the LHIN has tentatively agreed to contribute half the costs for 20 interim LTC beds at Cornwall Community Hospital. Previously, the LHIN CEO had called the proposal for 20 beds at the Cornwall hospital a "knee jerk reaction." A Cornwall hospital official now says "The Champlain LHIN is showing its commitment to the Cornwall Community Hospital."  The hospital hopes to have the interim long term care beds up and running at least on a temporary basis in the fall.  St. Joseph's Continuing Care (which provides Complex Continuing Care and LTC) in Cornwall is also getting 8 LHIN funded beds. (Despite media reports that the LHIN will add six beds at Glengarry Memorial Hospital, a local source indicates that complex continuing care beds are being changed to stroke beds, with a very modest staffing increase.)  All of this is to deal with the overcrowding at the Cor...

The Champlain LHIN boss, Dr. Robert Cushman, has practically ridiculed the Cornwall Community Hospital for proposing to place 30 convalescent beds in the hospital to help deal with the growth of alternate level of care (ALC) patients. According to Cushman, the proposal is a 'knee jerk reaction'. How on earth does this fit with the Health Minister's new plan to create more short term 'restorative' beds? This response is also disappointing as the North East LHIN recently added 136 convalescent beds to the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional Hospital (for at least a year) to deal with their growth of ALC patients. It also seems the Central East LHIN will postpone the proposed cut of convalescent beds at Northumberland Hills Hospital for a year. Dr. Peter Zallan, of the Sudbury ALC Committee, notes that the creation of new convalescent beds at the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional was important: "Without the Memorial site, this place wouldn't be functioning...

Cornwall Community Hospital is canceling surgeries due to a bed shortage.  As usual, the spin is there are too many alternate level of care (ALC) patients convalescing in the hospital.  Nobody, however, flags the rather more relevant fact that there has been a huge reduction in hospital beds in Cornwall.  In 1995/96, there were 207 acute beds in Cornwall; by 1997-98 that had been cut back to 148.  The Health Services Restructuring Commission ('HSRC'--the grim reaper of hospital servicies during the Harris government) planned to cut that further to 129 by 2003. But now, there are only 94 acute care beds in Cornwall. It's the same story if you look at the total number of hospital beds in Cornwall (i.e. including rehabilitation beds, mental health beds, and other non-acute services). The numbers shrank from 366 in 1995/96 to 255 in 1997/8. Although the HSRC plan was to bring back fifteen of the lost beds, what...

If you can judge by the attempts of Liberal MPPs to divert local communities, the local campaigns to get the McGuinty government to stop cutting local hospital services are getting stronger. One novel response is from Jim Brownell, the Liberal MPP for Stormont Dundas and South Glengarry. He has begun to promote the idea of regionalizing hospital services, suggesting that hospitals should develop ‘areas of expertise’. Brownell, I believe, is on very thin ice with his constituents. It's hard to see how the hospital services for people in Cornwall, Alexandria, and Winchester are going to benefit. Likely, people from smaller communities will have to travel to larger centres (if they can). Perhaps the smaller hospitals might work out a niche for some specialized services which they could provide to a very large catchment area. But is that really what people want from their local hospital? I doubt it. dallan@cupe.ca

The Liberals have doled out about $70 million in recent weeks to tide over  a dozen or so hospitals facing deficits or other problems as the fiscal year ends.   Of course, many other communities have just been left to suck up service cuts.  (About 70 hospitals are in deficit and about 30 are forced to get cash advances from the government just to meet payroll.) The claim is that this  differential treatment is based on a scientific estimate of the merits of the claims by the various hospitals. And, heavens, it certainly has nothing to do with politics. So it is interesting to note that about half of the money went to communities that pushed back the hardest: Niagara and Brampton.   Cornwall also got about $5 M.  The local LHIN boss claims that a LHIN " team spent considerable time and energy reviewing the hospital 's clinical services, administration, and governance before concluding   that $6.6 million of additional annual operating f...

YouTube - Cornwall Hospital Rally -- March 2010 - Member speaks out This link is to a video of a pretty impassioned plea from what I think is a CUPE hospital member in Cornwall. She was speaking to me during a rally in front of the local MPPs office last week. We were protesting the cuts the Liberals are bringing to the hospital. A really good, completely off the cuff summary. I just wished I got my camera out earlier and got everything she was saying.  Does anyone know her name?? dallan@cupe.ca