Defend Public Healthcare

Quinte Health Care is simply stopping elective surgeries for a week to deal with funding shortfalls from the provincial government.   The hospital's CEO Mary Clare Egberts told The Intelligencer that the cuts weren't in keeping with QHC's new " patient-first " strategy but a lack of provincial funding leaves few options.   The Intelligencer adds that QHC will also reduce physiotherapy for outpatients at all four of its hospital sites effective November 1 and is looking for other ways to cut costs (e.g. reducing sick pay, overtime, and supplies). The nearby Perth & Smith Falls District Hospital is planning to cut 12  beds, along with a wide range of other services (e.g. housekeeping) to deal with its funding shortfall. Departments have been told to cut 6%. In Sudbury, there was no relief for Health Sciences North from its recent " peer review ".   With the loss of 30 beds earlier this year for non-acute ("ALC") patients, the...

A pretty good editorial from the Belleville Intelligencer on one peril of hospital centralization. QHC needs to rethink putting eggs in one basket It's emergency surgery only at QHC hospitals this week and it's all because of a breakdown in sterilization equipment -- at one hospital site.T hat should prompt some questions about how the corporation centralizes its services. Scheduled surgeries and procedures at hospitals in Belleville, Trenton and Picton have been cancelled until Sept. 20 due to broken sterilization equipment.... Years ago, when QHC was established, it was the work of corporate planners that things like dietary needs, equipment distribution, supplies and even sterilization were centralized in the interest of cost-effectiveness.But, when something goes wrong in the central site where a certain crucial service is based, as we see with sterilization and surgery cuts this week, it illustrates the flaw in the scheme.  With the current onset across Canada of in...