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 provided by
Notes from Leftwords -- Doug Allan