Defend Public Healthcare

The Central East Community Care Access Centre (covering Durham, Northumberland, Peterborough, Haliburton, and Scarborough) reports a drastic decline in the amount of services it provided in its most recent annual report . There was 199,000 fewer "units" of personal support provided than in the previous year. The personal support budget was cut almost $4 million.  Nursing was harder hit. Nursing visits were reduced by 250,000 "units" and  2,000 fewer clients were served.  The visiting nurse budget was cut by over $8 million -- a 19% cut. Physiotherapy service units were cut 28%. Overall, Central East CCAC expenditures were cut almost $12 million, while its revenue actually increased over $7 million. In 2009-10 there was a significant deficit, so these cuts may have been made to make up for CCAC's debt. With no guarantee of home care, the care you receive is driven by budget rather than need.

Local Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci announced an extra $4.9 million for Sudbury Regional Hospital last week.  (The Liberal MPPs often seem to be able to free up their schedules for these cash announcements.)  In fact, most of the money ($4 million) is just the 1.5% base hospital funding increase that was announced five months ago in the provincial budget.  (Although there are now reports that some hospitals won't even get that.)   I have yet to hear anyone suggest that 1.5% will cover hospital inflation costs. So this isn't much of an announcement.  And the rest of the cash? Well there's some to make up for costs associated with last year's H1N1 epidemic ($60,000 -- whoppee) and $500,000 to cover extra operating costs associated with moving into a new facility.  More encouragingly, there was $400,000 for new neurosurgical procedures. We are now five months into the  province's fiscal year, and...

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 ...

The attack on community control of local hospitals continues.  This time in Northumberland, where the hospital board, which backed Liberal government cuts in local services, is using a new nomination process to prevent local hospital members from electing new hospital board members.  Instead the board has simply chosen five incumbent board members as the successful candidates! Former Coburg Mayor Angus Read finds it strange that members of the hospital board would be those deciding who should fill five board vacancies -- in essence "voting on themselves". The hospital board and its chief executive officer "want full control and they are leaving the people of Northumberland out of it," said local businessman Bill Patchett in an interview with Northumberland Today. Patchett, who helped with fundraising for the construction of the new hospital, adds "We're contemplating legal action." Here, as elsewhere, the new ideology is a 'skills-based boar...