Defend Public Healthcare

The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is planning to cut 22 hospital beds to deal with the government's funding squeeze. The cuts include seven medical beds, two surgical beds, and three pediatric beds in Chatham, as well as 10 complex continuing care beds at the Sydenham campus in Wallaceburg. The bed cuts are supposed to reduce the hospital's deficit. The Ontario government has endlessly claimed that improved home care services will offset hospital cuts. " Rebalance " is the Health Minister's word of choice. Despite this claim,  the organization overseeing home care in the Chatham area (the Erie-St. Clair Community Care Access Centre or "CCAC") is projecting a deficit of $8 to $10 million. The CCAC plans "aggressive and deliberate" actions to live within the budget provided by the government.  The CCAC boss, Betty Kuchta says this " is likely going to mean service adjustments."  Kuchta told the Windsor Star that they will s

As noted earlier , the seven year suspension of competitive bidding in home care will continue. But the stated plans for home care reform remain  ... vague. The "Community Providers Association Committee" (comprised of the the Ontario Association of CCACs, the Ontario Home Care Association, the Ontario Community Support Association, etc.) has formed a steering group and is establishing "Tables" for further discussion in four areas: [1] Funding Models, [2] Contracts, [3] Performance Measurement, and [4] Education and Training.  Each Table has about ten members.   In June, this reform initiative was named “Quality and Value in Home Care”. As a first step, “starting on October 1st, 2012, a new, flexible 2-year contract will be in place." This contract is supposed to give CCACs and service providers "the flexibility to begin the phased implementation of one or more changes in accordance with provincial direction and local priorities.” They also appear

In a media release yesterday, the government re-announced 3 million hours in personal support services for home care (among other re-announcements and one bona-fide announcement).  The hours were  also re-announced  ten days ago in another media release as well as way back in January, in the government's " Action Plan for Health Care " and the  Health Minister's speech  on the Action Plan (to the corporate crowd at the Toronto Board of Trade). At that time of the Action Plan, I made some rather unkind remarks  about the smallness of this particular contribution in light of what it was supposed to achieve.   But as it turns out, I was not unkind enough.  The government did not indicate in the Health Care Action Plan that the promise was to fund 3 million hours " over the next three years " .   Naive me -- I thought they meant to do it in a year! The two re-announcements in May, however did let us in on this fact. So I guess re-announcements do

Home care is not covered by the Canada Health Act and so there is no guarantee that medically necessary services be covered by public insurance.  This lack has long been one of the concerns raised by advocates of public health care, especially as home care plays a bigger role in health care.  Conference Board of Canada figures (released with a study yesterday) heighten this concern, at least for Ontario, where the role of private payment is increasing. Conference Board estimates indicate that the increase in public funding for home care in Ontario (in nominal dollars) was between 62% and 65% over the 11 years from 1999 to 2010.  Over the same period, private payment for health care increased 88%.  That is over one-third faster.   Canada-wide the story is a little different.  There, home care spending increased much more rapidly, both in the public and private spheres, with increases -- in both spheres -- in the 100% range.   Ontario lost a lot of ground in publicly funded