Defend Public Healthcare

Ontario has far fewer hospital beds than other provinces.  Compared to other countries, we are even further behind.  For the club of the 33 richest nations (the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development), the average is 4.8 hospital beds per 1000 population in 2012 (or the reported year closest to that).  The OECD reports    just 2.74 beds per 1000 population for Canada for 2011. (The OECD data can be downloaded here) .    Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) data suggests a very similar average for Canada -- 2.79 beds per 1000 population in 2012. Ontario beds however only come out at 2.34 hospital beds per 1000 population.  For the rest of Canada, it is 3.24 beds, closer to the norm. ( The CIHI data can be downloaded here) In other words,  the rest of Canada has 38% more hospital beds per 1,000 persons than Ontario.   The average of the 33 OECD nations is more than two times higher than Ontario.  In 1990, according to OECD data, the OECD countries ha

Hospitals are "full to bursting" and bed occupancy is reaching such "dangerous" levels that staff are struggling to maintain the safety and quality of patients' care, an authoritative study concludes. Alas and alack, this report is from the Guardian and refers to a new English study. But how much more apropos if the reference was to Ontario. While the English report flows from bed occupancy beginning to pass 85%, bed occupancy in Ontario is closer to 98%.  English ministers (at least until now) have liked to claim that hospitals maintain 85% bed occupancy.  In contrast, Ontario health minister Deb Matthews defends even more bed cuts . English Bed Occupancy Concerns Deepen English doctors warn that the bed occupancy findings reflect their increasingly frantic efforts to find beds and that patients – especially the elderly – are being scattered across hospitals. "A lack of beds in specialist wards results in patients being sent to wards where

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

Yesterday I noted the low rate of hospitalization in Canada and especially Ontario.  Recent data  from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD -- an organization for the world's richest nations) indicates that Mexico in fact has the lowest rate of hospitalizations amongst the 34 OECD "economically developed" nations. Now whether Mexico is actually economically comparable to the USA, Japan, Europe, etc. is another question.  But if we do include Mexico, Canada is the second lowest amongst the 34 OECD "economically developed" countries. Based on 2008 data, the average number of discharges per 100 population was 8.4 in Canada.  The average for all 34 of the OECD nations was practically double that -- 15.7  As noted yesterday, Ontario has the lowest level of hospitalizations of all the provinces in Canada.   We are not  quite at Mexican levels, but we are getting there. HEALTH CARE ACTIVITIES D