Defend Public Healthcare

Yesterday, the Institute for  Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES -- funded by the Ontario Ministry of Health and LTC) released a detailed study on seniors health care entitled  Aging in Ontario .  The study reports a number of interesting results: The number of Ontario seniors aged 85 and older increased by 36% over six years (2002-3 through 2008-9), This is more than any other age group in the adult population.  There was also a 13.7% increase in seniors 65 and over. The number of acute care hospital beds per 100,000 Ontario seniors decreased (Quite significantly: from close to 1,000 beds to, perhaps, 850 beds -- D.A.). The number of "ALC patients" (i.e. patients in acute care beds who no longer need acute care services) waiting for a bed at an LTC home (i.e. a nursing home)  almost doubled between 2005/06 and 2008/09. Patients in hospitals waited 55 days in the last quarter of 2008/09 for admittance to an...

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 Regina Health Region has started to privatize dental and knee arthroscopy surgeries, turning procedures over to a private clinic.  The rationale?  To reduce surgical wait times.  Oh, and the government claims the knee surgeries will cost $1,500 apiece, $179 cheaper than in the public sector. The Saskatoon Health Region is also exploring providing surgeries in a private facility. This from a province that until recently was a model of public health care delivery. The Ontario Conservatives raised the same idea in the last election, with a similar rationale.  But the claims were shot down (as were the Conservatives).  But the Ontario Liberal government had opened the door to this by introducing "patient based funding"  -- something that could be better described as "price based funding" or "fee for service".   Again, part of the rationale was specialized funding to reduce wait times for surgerie...

The Waterloo Record has run a fascinating story today on waits for long term care in Ontario.  Some highlights: From 2007 to 2009, the average wait time for a nursing-home bed in Ontario more than doubled, from 49 to 109 days. The province wide tally of people waiting is now more than 25,000 and rising, doubled from 12,000 in 2005. The supply of new beds is static, with annual growth of less than one per cent. Only 900 more beds are expected to be available in nursing homes over the next 24 months. The average wait for a long-term care bed through the Local Health Integration Network of Waterloo Wellington is 204 days. Only 33.9 per cent get their first choice of home. For hard-to-place seniors with a need for a higher level of care, waits can be two or more times the provincial average. In rural areas and northern Ontario, families may be separated by hundreds of kilometres, if there are beds at all. On average, less than 40 per cent of applicants get their first-choice hom...