Defend Public Healthcare

Another LHIN-based  initiative to restructure   " non-urgent patient transfers"  is underway.  Non-urgent transfers are ambulance-like transfers for patients from hospital to hospital, from hospital to long-term care, or from hospital to home. While the cost of these transfers often simply come out of the hospital budget, austerity has made this more difficult.   The latest restructuring project is in the North East  -- and is funded by the North East LHIN. Earlier this year , the government strongly endorsed a LHIN-wide plan for the South West.   As in the South West LHIN, t he North East project is supposed to develop a standardized approach to the delivery of non-urgent transportation services throughout the LHIN.   While EMS had provided much of the inter-facility transfers in the past, over the last 14 years that has changed, after the Mike Harris Progressive Conservative government introduced legislation in 2000 allowing hospitals to use for-profit

Scarborough General Hospital. Photo by  Benson Kua While physicians and surgeons have not usually been at the forefront of campaigns against cutbacks, more of them have begun to express concerns about hospital cuts in Ontario. Here are three recent examples. with a different emphasis from each. At a Rotary Club meeting May 3, Dr. Robert Ting, president of the Medical Staff Association at the Scarborough Hospital, noted the issue isn't management, it's a lack of funding, and it's getting  worse. " The politicians, they can  criticize  the management and everything, but even if they had  the best  management in the world, they wouldn't be able to keep the hospitals open under this kind of scenario... This is just the tip of the iceberg, " Dr Ting warned .   The hospital is facing $19.6 million in cuts and more than 300 doctors have signed a petition decrying the cuts. In Perth-Smith Falls, the Lanark County Medical Society organized a well atte

Health Sciences North hospital in Sudbury is planning to replace 30 hospital beds with a 25 bed unit inside a private retirement home, the  CBC  reports. OCHU/CUPE members protest earlier bed closures at Health Sciences North Richard Joly of the Northeast Community Care Access Centre says  "We are committed to reducing the population that are currently residing in hospital." Like many other hospitals, Health Sciences North is grappling with a significant deficit as government funding is squeezed.   Six million dollars in the case of HSN. Hospital officials claim the hospital beds cost $750 per day each and putting 25 beds in a private retirement home would cost $4 million less than having them at the Memorial hospital site.  In February, the hospital will stop funding the 30 beds. Similar strategies have been tried in other locales with disastrous results. In Windsor , a local hospital paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to remodel a for-profit retirement hom

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

Since closing 30 beds designed for non-acute patients in March, the number of  non-acute patients occupying acute care beds at Health Sciences North in Sudbury has more than doubled. OCHU/CUPE members protesting Sudbury bed cuts In February only 44 non-acute care patients were occupying acute care beds. But since the bed closures that number has increased: to 77 in April, 96 in May, and now 100 this week. In other words: the Liberal government cut 30 beds and now 100  patients are waiting for more appropriate services, a 127% increase compared to before the cuts.  Every day an extra 56 patients are waiting in more expensive hospital beds set up to provide services for much more acutely ill patients. It's hard to believe this is effective health care  -- or that it is going to save money. As a result of the hospital back-ups there is also nowhere to care for new patients. Currently about 25 patients admitted via the emergency department await beds.  The Sudbury Star

Sudbury hospital officials expect the shortage of hospital beds in the city will force 4 surgeries a day to be cancelled.  Thirty have been cancelled this month. Dr. David Boyle, the hospital's medical director of surgical services told the CBC he's frustrated because his department has toiled away at reducing surgical wait lists. “We've worked hard over the last two years to improve all of our wait lists. We still have quite a lot of stressors on our wait list compared to the other parts of the province."   Boyle said the problem lies in the absence of a home care strategy for seniors. Earlier this year, the hospital (Health Sciences North) was forced to cut 30 beds. The government is expected to require the hospital to cut another 30 beds next March.   Meanwhile, Betty Kutcha, CEO, of the Erie-St. Clair Community Care Access Centre told the Chatham Daily News , that personal support home care is becoming more limited as the agency is required to direct its

With a new record of alternate level of care (ALC) patients in acute care beds, Health Sciences North is now focusing on getting patients out of hospital sooner. The hospital administrator David McNeil said the focus will be on shortening the time patients are in hospital to below the "expected standards." Nine beds could essentially have been "created" last fiscal year if lengths of stay had been shorter, McNeil told the Sudbury Star . The Sudbury fire department has also refused the hospital's request to store patients in hallways, citing the fire hazard. The hospitial however will continue to keep patients in shower rooms, television lounges and linen rooms, places which do not break the fire code, apparently. The hospital was forced to close 30 alternative level of care beds this past March. Another 30 are scheduled to close next March. Murray Martin has now been called in by the North East LHIN to do a 'peer review' of the hospital and help it

Well here's a new one: hospital and fire officials are meeting in Sudbury to determine if it is okay to keep patients in hallway beds on medical floors, according to a report from the   Sudbury Star .   Apparently, some believe it may be safer to keep surplus patients in the hallways of medical floors rather than the hallways of Emergency Rooms. Two senior doctors have complained that recent hospital bed closures were hurting ER operations, including Hospital chief of staff, Dr. Chris Bourdon.  Bourdon says solutions proposed two or three weeks ago haven't done much to ease ER pressures, adding that although the ideas were great "when you look at them in depth, they're recycled ideas and enhancements of what we've already done." The   Star   reports that fire officials have expressed concerns about patients being placed in hallways. But there have long been complaints that patients were placed in inappropriate places due to overcrowding at the

Now there are 96 hospital ALC patients at the Ramsey Lake site of Health Services North. Thats up from 77, as reported April 17. The Hospital closed 30 beds for ALC patients at its old Memorial site in March.  Since then the number of ALC patients at the main site (Ramsey Lake) have ballooned.  The Sudbury Star reports that the number of ALC patients has increased from 40 or 50  in January. The beds at the Ramsey Lake site are not intended for ALC patients and are more costly to operate. With the back up in beds, ER wait times are increasing.  Another 30 ALC beds in Sudbury are scheduled to be closed next March as well.

The Ontario government withdrew funding for 30 ALC beds at the Memorial site of the Health Sciences North hospital in Sudbury.   The Sudbury Star reports that since the beds closed, the hospital has re-opened 6 or 7 beds at the Memorial site, paid for out of the hospital's own funds.  In addition, the number of ALC patients at another site of the hospital has increased from 44 to 77 -- an increase of 33. On Friday,  18 people admitted to emergency were lying in cots awaiting a bed. The result?  The hospital is now designated in 'crisis' and to get it out of crisis, hospital patients will be given priority over people waiting at home for long term care beds.  The hospital beds for ALC seniors, the Star reports, cost $600-$700 per day -- more than twice the cost of ALC beds at Memorial.   The hospital is stuck paying this it seems while trying to eliminate a $9 million deficit by September 2012. It doesn’t sound like the government’s plan to cut costs

Health Sciences North in Sudbury has issued layoff notices to 62 staff as the hospital moves to shut down 30 beds March 31, 2012. Another 30 are scheduled to shut March 31, 2013. All 60 beds are at the hospital's Memorial site. The Hospital defends the cuts, arguing that ambulatory clinics will replace the beds, the Sudbury Star reports. But Dr. Stephen Kosar, president of the Sudbury and District Medical Society is skeptical, adding that he is hoping for a stay of execution: "Maybe the governor will make a call before they walk down the green mile." The beds to be closed are serving alternative level of care (ALC) patients. There were 43 ALC patients in acute-care beds at the main hospital and 61 at the Memorial site on Thursday. The Star reports that the "hospital has fewer beds than planners wanted and they said it would only be large enough to serve the community -- and the region -- if it had no ALC patients."

Today, the provincial government announced $6.3 million to care for 'alternative level of care'    (ALC)  patients at the Memorial site of the Sudbury Regional Hospital, at least for one more year.   The government characterizes this investment in 60 hospital beds as a way "to make it easier for patients to transition from hospital back home."    The hospital says the "surge capacity beds" will  offer post-acute patients "the assistive care services they require  before returning home safely."  The government  sees the beds as one part of a larger set of strategies and  i ndeed  increasing  community  and   hospital  capacities  is required to reduce the health care rationing reflected in hospital overloads, wait lists,  cancelled surgeries , and  ALC patients . Sharon Richer, OCHU Area 6 vice-president calls this initiative ‘one small step forward.’

As part of the recent public relations campaign by Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), the CEO of the Northeast LHIN, Louise Paquette, has   told  Northern Life  that  they have reduced the number of alternate level of care patients in the four largest northeast hospitals by half.   The article discusses in more detail the situation in Sudbury.  Here the hospital says the number of alternate level of care (ALC) patients has fallen from a high of 190 to 210 ALC patients to just 91 ALC patients.  That would mean a reduction of somewhere between 99 and 119 ALC patients.   Sounds impressive, right?  Well here's the interesting part.  The hospital CEO credits the reduction to the opening of 116 long term care beds at St. Gabriel's and Pioneer Manor.   The government is practically allergic to opening new beds in hospitals or LTC facilities no matter how much the demand. So, this solution is definitely not typical . And notably, the numbers suggest that the governmen

The North East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) has maintained that 152 new long term care beds  now starting to open would be enough to house transitional care patients currently at the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional Hospital.  But hospital President Dr. Denis Roy told the Sudbury Sta r,  "I'm not sure I can look you in the eyes and say there won't be any patients left" after those 152 beds are filled.  "There will be patients left." But (as usual) it remains unclear who will pick up the tab for those patients.  "We're in the fog here with regards to that," said Roy.  The LHIN hasn't said yes or no. The Star reports that, regardless, the hospital is going ahead with plans to open several new clinics at its Memorial site, to provide  more out-patient services, in the hope of reducing in-patient and ER services. The hospital also plans to operate 40-75 surge beds at the Memorial site after transitional patients were tr

The North East LHIN has maintained that 152 new beds at Villa St. Gabriel and Pioneer Manor would be enough to house transitional care patients currently at the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional Hospital.  But hospital President Dr. Denis Roy told the Sudbury Sta r,  "I'm not sure I can look you in the eyes and say there won't be any patients left" after those 152 beds are filled.  "There will be patients left." But (as usual) it remains unclear who will pick up the tab.  "We're in the fog here with regards to that," said Roy.  The LHIN hasn't said yes or no. The Star reports that the hospital is going ahead with plans to open several new clinics at its Memorial site, to provide  more services on an out-patient basis rather than in hospital or in the emergency department. The hospital also planned to operate 40-75 surge beds at the Memorial site after transitional patients were transferred to the long term care facilities. Surge

ALC issue a crisis to patients, relatives The Sudbury Star Wed Jan 19 2011,Page: A11   Column: Letters to the Editor Re: "ALC a challenge, not crisis" -- Dec. 20. I find it farcical that Denis Roy, the CEO of Sudbury Regional Hospital, says the alternate-level of-care issue is "not a crisis, but a challenge." Anyone who is an advocate for an elderly parent now in the system knows the whole situation is indeed a "crisis" if you're in the midst of living it alongside your parent. It certainly must be a challenging task to address as a health-care administrator, but anyone who is currently advocating for an elderly parent knows, it truly is a crisis. How else do you explain a marked lack of long-term care beds for the very people who built this community into what it is today? They have paid taxes for more than 50 or 60 years and now have to worry continually about where they will live and who will care for them, even as they are facing serious

New funding totaling $985,700 will keep 20 beds open at the Cornwall hospital until the end of the fiscal year. This should keep the "transitional care" beds opened in August running until March 31.    "At which time there are other strategies in the works," hospital CEO Jeanette Despatie said . The 20 convalescent beds were created in August to help deal with hospital overcrowding in Cornwall. Just before Christmas, Liberal MPP Rick Bartolucci announced another $1.4 million for Sudbury health care-- another area with severe hospital overcrowding. In this case, the money is dedicated to home care services and  new LTC beds. This announcement follows local campaigns (by CUPE and others) to defend health services. New health care money is often announced just about now -- late in the fiscal year.    So there may be more to come in the weeks ahead.  dallan@cupe.ca

CUPE Local 1623 members protested Monday to demand the North East LHIN consult citizens in northeastern Ontario before it closes 130 hospital beds at the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional Hospital in March.   About 190 hospital jobs are at stake, but Dave Shelefontiuk, CUPE Local 1623 president, noted that he is more worried about how the elderly will be taken care of in the future. Shelefontiuk called on the North East Local Health Integration Network to live up to the word "local" in its name and hold a public forum to discuss the closure of transitional beds. When contacted about the protest by the Sudbury Star , the LHIN replied via email, re-issuing a statement the LHIN made Nov. 24. Shelefontiuk adds of the rally: "I t was freezing, with the wind chill it was minus 30. But there was some workers from Memorial site there. We are now planning a public forum." dallan@cupe.ca

The Sudbury Regional Hospital has been operating 100 transitional beds for patients who no longer need acute care services at one of its old sites -- the Memorial Hospital.  (The Memorial had been one of the main sites for the hospital until a new facility opened earlier this year.)  Opening beds for such patients at underutilized hospital sites has been a modest trend in the past year, as high hospital bed occupancy chokes up the hospitals.  Northern Life reports the hospital is opening thirty more such beds at the Memorial site -- but without provincial funding.  Hospital vice-president Dave McNeil suggests this is going to cause significant budget problems for the hospital. Worse, all the Memorial beds are slated to close April 1, 2011, as funding commitments run out. In June, the Sudbury Regional Hospital board recommended that the site be kept open until 2013.  And yet currently, the hospital sometimes moves in to triple over-capacity (which means housing patients in i

The Ontario Ombudsman has decided not to investigate the decision to move 31 mental health hospital beds from North Bay to Sudbury. A complaint, filed in July by the Concerned Citizens' Committee of North Bay and Area, charged that  the North East LHIN didn't adequately consult with patients, families and experts before making its decision April 29. The North East LHIN acknowledged that an open call for public consultation wasn't made, but said a task force consulted stakeholders. Gareth Jones, director of the Special Ombudsman Response Team that considered the complaint, said his team interviewed many people before deciding not to investigate the complaint. Linda Williamson, a spokeswoman for Ombudsman Ontario, said the watchdog does not investigate decisions by a government organizations, such as a local health integration network, but rather the process. Louise Paquette, CEO of the North East LHIN, commented "I'm pleased we've got some closure.  We