Defend Public Healthcare

The   Welland Tribune   reports that the Niagara Health System hospital is "struggling with a lack of patient beds as it tries to isolate patients with the infectious C. Difficile disease."  Nevertheless, t he Niagara Health System has no plans of reopening recently closed  hospital  beds to help deal with its current superbug outbreaks.    Justifying, this position, the NHS interim CEO Sue Matthews said  "We will not be going and knocking on the Ministry (of Health and Long-Term Care's) door asking for more money, more money. We have lots of tough decisions that obviously have been made and need to be made. We will continue to work within our finances that we have." The NHS has closed many  hospital  beds through the implementation of its so-called " hospital  improvement plan". Ontario  Hospitals, under intense funding pressure, closed over 600 beds in 2010. As reported in an earlier note , the British Medical Association has identified high

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

Niagara Falls city c ouncil tore into the Niagara Health System  Monday night, passing a resolution expressing outrage with the hospital's  handling of its reports of  a C. difficile outbreak at the Greater Niagara General Hospital,  the Niagara Bullet reports .  The outrage came after the hospital revealed that four people with C. Difficile had also died at the Greater Niagara  General site.   The deaths occurred between May 12 and June 16, but were not reported until June 23.     The report came long after the hospital began reporting an outbreak and deaths at the  St. Catharines General site. A hospital spokesperson, argued, “What needs to be emphasized is that there will always be patients with C. difficile in our hospitals and in our communities. It is not common practice for hospitals to report individual deaths directly to the public.”  A hospital vice-president added that the NHS notified the coroner about the four GNGH deaths but not the public until after the outbreak h

Bullet News in Niagara reports that  Niagara Health System (NHS) officials kept quiet the deaths of five C. difficile patients at hospitals in Niagara Falls and Welland, even as they struggled to bring under control an official outbreak at St. Catharines General where 10 elderly patients have died in less than four weeks. The Bullet adds that as late as Friday afternoon, NHS officials had made no mention of the deaths of four C. difficile patients at Greater Niagara General hospital and one at Welland County General hospital between May 12 and June 16.  The deaths were revealed later Friday – a full day after official outbreaks were declared at the Welland and Niagara Falls hospitals – by way of a single sentence at the bottom of a notice posted on the health system’s  website . “I just can’t believe it,” said Niagara Falls MPP Kim Craitor, who said he intends to contact Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews over the weekend to ask her to launch an investigation. “This warrants

The Ontario Health Coalition reported today that the Minister of Health and Long Term Care has finally relented and agreed to a review of the (so-called) "Hospital Improvement Plan" in Niagara.  As reported earlier, the Niagara municipal leaders had asked the Minister for a review in April. The review will only focus on the parts of the HIP that have been implemented -- not those still pending.   The review will involve the Local Health Integration Network, the Niagara Health System hospital, and regional municipal leaders. They will establish terms of reference for the review.  Local municipalities have shown good leadership on the HIP, so many in Niagara will be looking to them to stand strong.  No doubt, community members will work hard to ensure that this is a serious attempt to review the HIP and not a whitewash. The people in local communities (with the OHC) have fought the closures and cutbacks that came with the HIP tooth and nail.  So this step forward is their

The Ontario Health Coalition has raised concerns about a Niagara Health System plan to close  beds at the Welland Hospital.  The beds are housed in a wing of the Welland hospital that includes an “extended care unit” and a “long-term care unit”.  The hospital plans to sell off the license to operate these beds, possibly to a for-profit company. Niagara health care activist Sue Salzer calls this a surprise move.  “It even goes beyond the devastating cuts in the  NHS ‘Hospital Improvement Plan’.” The NHS   suggests    that it is one of the few  acute-care hospitals that still operate long-term-care beds.    For the record, most hospitals provide both acute and non-acute services, and some provide long term care services.   NHS provides a whole range of health care services to the community far beyond acute care.   Only half of its in-patients fall into  the ‘acute’ care category.  And many more patients never even see a hospital bed, much less an acute care bed.   Here is NHS

Ontario Health & Long Term Care Minister Deb Matthews met with Niagara Regional Councillors Tuesday for an hour, but did not meet their demand for a review of the restructuring plan for the Niagara Health System hospital  according to Niagara newspapers .   In February, regional council voted 24-3 to lobby the Ontario government for an  investigation  into the health system's plan, which called for the closure of emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne and the closure of maternity wards in Niagara Falls and Welland. The motion also called for an immediate suspension of all aspects of the plan aside from the new St. Catharines hospital and a commitment from the province to pay the downloading costs associated with the plan (presumably meaning the extra ambulance costs associated with the plan). Niagara Falls mayor Jim Diodati said:  " She understands there's angst with the health-care system in Niagara. But she originally thought the angst is a result of d

The  Niagara Falls Review , the  Welland Tribune  and Liberal MPP Kim Craitor have joined the call by Niagara Regional Council for an independent review of the Niagara Health System's 'hospital improvement plan'.  The plan cuts hospital services in several smaller communities in Niagara and has caused a major uproar in local communities.   Health Minister  Deb Matthews  has repeatedly said she's impressed by the work done by the Niagara Health System and that it can continue implementing its blueprint for the future. She said she has no plans to appoint an investigator.  For more see  here .    dallan@cupe.ca

The press secretary to Minister of Health Deb Matthews, said Friday the province is planning for a funding increase for the Hamilton Niagara Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) “in the very near future.”  The Hamilton Spectator   reported   just prior to this announcement that the CCAC was cutting home care services to deal with a deficit shaping up to be in the $10 to 12 million range this fiscal year. The government's increase for the CCAC however will only amount to$2.3 million, or 1%.  So the cuts, it seems are going to keep on coming. The increase for homecare (such as it is) is still 1% more than  earlier reports had suggested  -- and we are more than half way through the fiscal year.  But I don't think this announcement quite qualifies as a "step forward". The 1% is reportedly part of the province-wide increase for CCACs.  The (acting) boss of the "Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN" reports that the LHIN has known about the new money for

The Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant Community Care Access Centre has run up a $5 million deficit so far this year.  If it doesn't make significant cuts, the shortfall will grow to between $10 million and $12 million by March 31, the end of the fiscal year, according to the Hamilton Spectator . To cut costs, new patients needing more than 60 hours of home care a month will have to stay in hospital on indefinite waiting lists. New home care clients will get only one bath a week unless they are incontinent and those at low risk will face wait lists for services. Other patients will be sent to community nursing clinics for care instead of having home care come to them. Hospitals worry the result will be backlogs, particularly in the emergency department. "It impacts the whole system from end to end," said Mary MacLeod, vice-president of patient services at Burlington's Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital. The Ontario Minister of Health, Deb Matthews has claimed that

As part of ongoing provincial cutbacks, the Niagara Health System hospital closed the Emergency Departments (EDs) in two of its smaller sites last year, converting them into Urgent Care Centres (UCCs).  The hospital now recognizes that it "has been experiencing serious issues with off load delays" at its three remaining EDs despite a policy for ambulances to bring at least some patients to the converted UCCs (and the maintenance of similar patient volumes at the UCCs).  Nevertheless, sicker patients are now being brought to the EDs. The hospital notes: At the same time while our volumes in the Emergency Departments in Welland and Niagara Falls have remained relatively stable the acuity level of the patients presenting are higher. As the acuity increases the resources required to manage these patients expands, resulting in more diagnostic testing and physician assessments. This causes an increase in the “time in the ED” hence increases congestion, crowding and potential

Sault Ste. Marie has won  its battle to maintain funding for seven mental health beds the Sault Area Hospital was scheduled to lose when it moved to its new facility this spring.  The move is expected to save three or four jobs at the Sault Area Hospital and keep service at current levels. Other modest victories were achieved in Ottawa . The Ministry of Health and LTC has agreed to fund four beds for babies who need extra care at birth at both the Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton Hospital. The annual cost of the initiative totals $2.6 million. (Perhaps I'm just a cynic, but we are getting closer to an election, aren't we?) Less helpful was an editorial in the St. Catharine's Standard .  The piece notes that the Regional Municipality of Niagara will likely consider the Ontario Health Coalition's proposal that the province investigate the Niagara Health System (the NHS -- which has made a hash of things by cutting Emergency Rooms among other things). 

A new report from Niagara EMS suggests that hospital cutbacks, including the closure of two hospital Emergency Rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colbourne, has resulted in longer "offload delays" for paramedics, as they wait to transfer their patients to hospital staff at the remaining three ERs in the area. In fact, the offload delays are projected to increase 68% in 2010, reaching 10,000 unit hours for paramedics. Since the restructuring of hospital ERs last year and the resulting increase in patient arrivals by ambulance to the three remaining ERs, "off-load delays have increased significantly and have now surpassed the previous peak of 7,075 unit hours set in 2008." Niagara Falls Liberal MPP Kim Craitor said he had heard ambulance off-load delays are increasing and he's concerned about the situation. "I don't disagree with anything they say in that report."  Without sufficient beds to move patients into, the problem will not be resolved, he a

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

A couple of pics from the recent OCHU / CUPE Local 2875 rally to stop bed cuts at the Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa. It was a great day. (And thanks for the pics to Louis and Local 1974 at Kingston General!)  Also -- the People's Healthcare Coalition, has collected more than 5,000 signatures calling for an investigation into what led to the decision to close the emergency rooms at Port Colborne and Fort Erie hospitals in Niagara. "We've had tremendous support so far," Coalition representative Pat Scholfield said, noting she collected several hundred signatures at the Market Square Friday morning. "Our goal is Queen's Park".

The City of Port Colborne passed a motion Monday night to seek legal advice on legal actions it might take  regarding the shutdown of the local hospital's emergency room, the Tribune reports . "We have made the move to seek that legal advice and take the appropriate steps," said Mayor Vance Badawey.  Barbara Butters, a councillor for Ward 4 in Port Colbourne was even franker:  "Do whatever it takes to make sure these charges get laid because there's no way those SOBs should be getting away with this," Butters said as citizens cheered from the public gallery.  Municipalities are playing are bigger role defending local hospital services. Good on them!

Deb Matthews is staunchly defending the decision to close the emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne despite the sharp critique of the LHINs (illegal) consultation process by Andre Marin, the Ontario Ombudsman.  Matthews told Niagara area papers "We're not revisiting that decision. The decision remains the right decision...we're absolutely not going to be reopening that decision."  Obligingly, the LHIN chairwoman Juanita Gledhill said her board doesn't plan to revisit its earlier decisions either.  Big surprise. This does not bode well for other smaller hospitals.  Even in the face of months of community outrage, calls from the opposition parties, and an Ombudsman's report suggesting a phony consultation process, Matthews will not even consider a review of the decision to close the small hospital ERs. Now there's a government official determined to do some damage. So it is interesting to hear that  Port Colborne Mayor Vance Badawey says &

The provincial government has just coughed up an extra $14 million for the Niagara Health System (a multi-site hospital) for the 2009-10 fiscal year, i.e. a year which will end in just over a month (March 31). Apparently, the money will be rolled into the hospital's base funding. This following solid community campaigns against cutbacks and closures of emergency rooms (reaching a terrible culmination when a young victim died while being driven to a more distant emergency room). This also follows the recent successful campaign to get the government to keep the Grace hospital in Toronto going. -- Doug dallan@cupe.ca