Defend Public Healthcare

Lurking only slightly below the surface in the recent fight over changes to funding for physiotherapy is yet another problem with health care privatization. The government is stopping the ability of 94 physiotherapy clinics to directly bill OHIP. Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews says that, over the years, licences to provide these services have been bought up by large corporations. Currently, two-thirds of the billing goes to four companies that are, she says, "behind the protests" against her reforms. Moreover, she charges that the " existing 94 clinics have had an unlimited ability to bill the government and have become very creative in they way they bill." By reforming how the money is distributed, the government claimed they will provide physiotherapy, exercising and fall-prevention classes to 218,000 more people, mostly seniors .   And they are going to do this while providing less money for physiotherapy than they otherwise would:  $16,000,0

It's amusing to review the course of events that led to the revelation of the secrecy concerning the problems at private surgical and diagnostic clinics.   Queen's Park. Photo: Paul Bica The doctors lobbied to move surgical and diagnostics work from the hospitals.  The government let the emerging industry slip free of public reporting and oversight.   Subsequently, after a death (and a coroners report), the government required the industry to face some modest oversight in 2010 -- not by a public authority, but through self-regulation by the docs . (Remember, the doctors had lobbied to expand the industry in the first place.) Then in the fall of 2011, following  disclosure that 6,800 patients would have to be notified that faulty infection control procedures at a private clinic could have exposed them to HIV or hepatitis, Health Minister Deb Matthews declined to introduce oversight by a public authority, despite public pressure .  Instead she comments,   " Gover

Queen's Park in Darkness (Grant MacDonald) Yesterday I fumed about the gall of one academic who claimed that privatized P3s (public private partnerships) had actually increased  public transparency. Even more evidence came today that privatization leads to a lack of transparency.  Not only is the Ontario government turning more surgeries and procedures over to private clinics, they have contracted out the oversight of these outfits to the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Today, the  Toronto Star  reports that the College of Physicians claims that legislation passed by the Liberals putting the College in charge of inspections of these clinics, also prevents the College from actually telling the public which clinics are providing sub-standard care!  "We are not allowed to discuss the failed premises" says the College president, Dr. Bob Byrick.  As a result, we do not even know where the clinics are located. It remains unclear if even the Ministry of Health &

The Medical Director  of Saskatchewan's new for-profit surgical clinic has resigned.  It turns out he is ALSO the head of the Surgery Department at Regina General Hospital -- and has been for the last 11 years.  The brains behind the Health Region sees no conflict of interest. DUH! But having the Director wear two hats in this situation is an obvious conflict of interest, Suzanne Posyniak, a spokesperson for the Canadian Union of Public Employees, told the CBC .  . "How can you be responsible for ensuring that the hospital is doing the maximum number of surgeries in house, fully using all of its own infrastructure, and at the same time managing a for-profit clinic that needs business from the region to turn a profit?" Posyniak said. "You could tell this story to anyone and they would roll their eyes and think 'Duh … of course this is a problem,'" Posyniak said. With the Health Authority  denying a conflict of interest in such an obvious cas

A great new short video from CUPE in Saskatchewan on the privatization of surgeries is right here: Their had been plans to develop a new $14 million public surgical centre that would perform 7,000 surgeries per year and house a pre-admission clinic to relieve pressure on acute care hospital facilities.  It was supposed to be operational by March 2011 - -but the government has postponed or cancelled the plans for the centre.   Saskatchewan sources say instead the government has funded private clinics at millions of dollars with poor results. “Instead of expanding surgical capacity, the region has simply transferred the surgical work to the private sector,” said Gordon Campbell, President of the CUPE Health Care Council in Saskatchewan. To boot, an existing private clinic is suing the Regina health region for the potential loss of $10 million after a contract was awarded to a Calgary-based private clinic! Saskatchewan was the birthplace of public health care in

Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews has refused the suggestion by a health expert that the province should take on responsibility for overseeing private clinics. Her comments to the Ottawa Citizen follow the disclosure that 6,800 patients would have to be notified that faulty infection control procedures at a private clinic in Ottawa could have exposed them to HIV or hepatitis.  Matthews said she was not planning on taking over that responsibility through her ministry, the Citizen reports. "Government can't do everything.  A professional (regulating body) like the College of Physicians and Surgeons, they take responsibility for their members."  "At this point I am delighted the College is taking that responsibility seriously and has found a problem that we need to fix."  The Citizen reports that roughly 270 private clinics in Ontario exist without being subject to the same sanitation and infection-control standards as hospitals.  However, following th

Leftwords reported last week that some Ontario doctors got a big raise through the McGuinty government's 'wait times' strategy (a funding system that CUPE has long opposed as it opens the door to privatization and contracting out work from hospitals). This brings to mind that ANOTHER McGuinty government initiative that has ALSO driven up doctor incomes. The government has been pushing "Family Health Teams" (FHTs) since 2004. While doctors run the FHTs, the FHTs employ a range of health care employees and take on a broad range of health care services, some well beyond family doctor services, including services until now done in hospitals.     As usual, this government is trying to take more work out of our hospitals. With last month's announcement of another 30 new Family Health Teams the total number of FHTs is now 200.  When these new FHTs become operational, 3,000,000 people will receive health services through them (an average of 15,000 patients p

The Globe and Mail is raising concerns in its lead news story today about rapidly increasing payments to physicians.  OCHU/CUPE had raised similar concerns several months ago, uncovering a 57.6% funding increase for doctors between 2004-5 and 2009-10. Notably, the Globe also ties the rapid increase to the development of wait time funding by the Ontario government.  OCHU / CUPE has also raised concerns about wait time funding as it is a form of price-based funding that opens the door to privatization and a market for health care. Judging from the Globe's account, the market has resulted in handsome increases for some doctors, with 259 now billing over $1 million annually. One group of docs that have benefited in particular is the opthamologists who do cataract surgeries through the wait times programs (sometimes at clinics like the new Kensington Eye Clinic in Toronto rather than at hospitals).  The Globe notes that health-care experts say the fee structure for doctors h

While the McGuinty government is trying just about everything (short of bricking up the front doors) to stop health care from happening in hospitals, St. Francis Memorial Hospital in Barry's Bay is trying out a very interesting experiment that is expanding the range of local services available through the hospital. Instead of the usual attempts to close down hospital clinics, the hospital has opened a Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) nursing clinic.  The CCAC used to sponsor a health clinic, but although it was located right next door to the hospital, red tape and bureaucratic obstacles ate up hours of time for patients, doctors and nurses if any referrals were necessary.  The clinic closed in February, unable to sustain itself on low patient volumes. The pilot project in the hospital was launched on June 28 and is scheduled to wrap up on Sep. 12. Reportedly there will then be talks between the CCAC, the hospital, and the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) to