Defend Public Healthcare

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 we are only now beginning to hear a little bit of information on thi

Lakridge CEO Kevin Empey says the public focus at a LHIN meeting last November "embarrassed" the government into providing a significant funding increase. Lakridge was among four hospitals in this LHIN's region that received a total of $10 million.  Empey said he understood MPPs whose constituents use Lakeridge facilities lobbied for the financial support. Elsewhere, other Liberal MPPs have been active. MPP Rick Bartolucci announced in December the funding of a whack of new Sudbury Regional Hospital convalescent beds (http://www.rickbartolucci.com/pressreleases.aspx?id=157 ) . The funding of new convalescent beds at Sudbury Regional Hospital helped deal with the overflow of hospital patients in Sudbury. Other solutions will be slower and "much harder" according to one doctor involved in the issue. In contrast, other hosptials are cutting  hospital beds with the approval of their local Liberal MPP.  Cornwall's Jim Brownell and Northumberland's Lou R