Defend Public Healthcare

Ouch! Health Minister Deb Matthews won't like this. A leading  Toronto Star  columnist, Bob Hepburn, urges Premier McGuinty today to step in and order Health Minister Deb Matthews to fix the mess in home care. ...the McGuinty government is pressuring hospitals to reduce costs. To do that, hospital administrators are slashing the number of beds and pushing patients out the door faster than ever, turning them over to community health authorities. However, cash-strapped Community Care Access Centres, which arrange for support from local health-care professionals, have simultaneously cut funds for all but the most severe cases. These cuts - more than 50 per cent in some areas - have been made suddenly and without consultation.  The dramatic reductions started to show up last fall and have continued to this day. Hardly a day goes by without more layoffs and more reduced workloads for health-care professionals. The result is that patients who need critical services pr...

Leftwords reported last week that some Ontario doctors got a big raise through the McGuinty government's 'wait times' strategy (a funding system that CUPE has long opposed as it opens the door to privatization and contracting out work from hospitals). This brings to mind that ANOTHER McGuinty government initiative that has ALSO driven up doctor incomes. The government has been pushing "Family Health Teams" (FHTs) since 2004. While doctors run the FHTs, the FHTs employ a range of health care employees and take on a broad range of health care services, some well beyond family doctor services, including services until now done in hospitals.     As usual, this government is trying to take more work out of our hospitals. With last month's announcement of another 30 new Family Health Teams the total number of FHTs is now 200.  When these new FHTs become operational, 3,000,000 people will receive health services through them (an average of 15,000 patients p...

The McGuinty government flak catchers at the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN just keep at it. Not satisfied with all the (negative) attention they received for effectively shutting down the hospitals in Fort Erie and Port Colbourne, they are now in the midst of shutting down 181 complex continuing care beds across the LHIN. The Hamilton Spectator reports today that between "December and May, area hospitals closed 123 of 809 beds used to treat the dying, patients with multiple complex conditions, seniors with dementia and those needing restorative care to get home. " The plan is to close a further 58 beds by April 2012. "We've been able to reduce the number of beds without reducing access to service because the CCAC (Community Care Access Centre) is now taking care of these individuals in the community said Alan Iskiw, LHIN interim CEO. This does not sit well with widespread reports that the CCACs (which oversee home care) are cutting services to deal ...

The Toronto Star reports : "Thousands of Ontario nurses who work at ...non-unionized hospitals complain they're getting the cold shoulder from Premier Dalton McGuinty's public sector pay freeze." While the non-union RNs are in the midst of a government imposed two year wage freeze, unionized RNs got pay increases April 1, as per their collective agreement.   “I don’t know why they’re doing this to us,” non-union RN Julia Fisher said. “The government has created a two-tier pay schedule. We’re being penalized.” Even bosses at non-union hospitals are not pleased with the situation. They fear it will be harder to recruit and retain no-union staff.  “We are concerned the government’s freeze is creating significant inequity between union and non-unionized staff doing the same work,” said Janet Davidson, president and chief executive of Trillium in Mississauga. Davidson's reference to "staff" is appropriate as a similar problem applies to non-unionized R...

Buried in today's Statistics Canada report on inflation in July is the fact that inflation in Ontario has increased from 1.6% to 2.9%.   The new "Harmonized Sales Tax" (HST) came into effect on July 1 in Ontario.  As the HST transfers costs to consumers,  the increase in the cost of living in Ontario is now the highest in the land.  This means you have to earn 2.9% more dollars to maintain your standard of living as of a year ago.  And if your wages were frozen (as the government would like), your standard of living would go down by an equivalent amount.  For those of you lucky enough to live in Toronto or Ottawa, the increase is 3.1% and 3.0% respectively. (The Statistics Canada report is here and a quick Canada-wide summary from the Globe and Mail is  here  ). It's worth remembering that the same McGuinty government that brought you the HST also wants to free...

A darn good letter on the McGuinty government's  introduction of the LHINs from local CUPE hospital activist, Paul MacDonald. It was published yesterday in the Toronto Star .  Paul -- yes -- public sector union and community activists did do a pretty fair job campaigning on the problems associated with the LHIN model, and did so pretty much right from the get go.  And YES, it is nice to see that at least some of those problems are becoming more apparent to a broader section of the population now. So a thanks to all the local union and community activists who got the ball rolling! -- Doug LHIN system should be scrapped; Secret health unit meetings 'illegal,' Aug. 11 Toronto Star, Sat Aug 14 2010 Page: IN7 Section: Letter Re. Secret health unit meetings 'illegal,' Aug. 11 Not only should these secret LHIN board meetings be deemed illegal, the entire system of LHINs should also be deemed illegal. When an unelected, u...

Remember Peterborough Regional Health Centre?  They were effectively ordered by the provincial government to cut costs.  The result -- 283 hospital jobs (182.3 full time equivalent positions) are being cut, right this minute. Health Minister Deb Matthews has claimed that hospital cuts aren't so bad because there is so much more community care. But the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) that oversees home care services in Peterborough is in a similar predicament as the hospital.  The CCAC is now reported to have fallen $14 million into deficit over the last two years -- and so it too is cutting costs, right this minute. (Of course, they say they are cutting costs without cutting home care programs and services.  Just like the McGuinty government says it is doing in hospitals.  With probably the same degree of accuracy.) The Mike Harris government professed that hospital cuts would be made up b...

Holding the line on those salaries .... is a linchpin of the government's plan to eliminate Ontario's $21.3-billion deficit.  ( Windsor Star -- See here .  My emphasis.  ) This seems to be the  notion  behind the government's compensation freeze proposal. I use "notion" advisedly here:  this doesn't really qualify as a full fledged 'idea'. Here's why. Some have suggested the wage freeze might 'save' $750 million next year. But that is a gross exaggeration.  The government (and government backed employers) have already signed contracts with the major public sector bargaining groups for this year, next year, and, often, beyond that. So any savings aren't going to happen for these groups any time soon.  And, of course, decreasing the real wages of a large chunk of workers will have a negative impact on the economy and local jobs. The incomes of working people support local economies - more so t...