Defend Public Healthcare

Our Health minister, Deb Matthews, claims our health care is getting better because we are cutting hospital services, and care in the community is picking up the slack.  Well, here's one person's experience: "Closing of palliative care! This is a farce. You take this away from the aging and sick public then you might as well shut the whole hospital. As it is, the six rooms are not enough. My family was in dire need of palliative care in October 2009 but could not be helped. We needed a member of our family in hospital for the remainder of his days. He was in the hospital when he was told his life was at an end. He wanted and needed to remain in hospital. He was discharged. The doctor in charge of his care told us to take him home. He was told his bed was needed for someone they could fix. How uncaring and rude. How many other poor souls had this same thing happen? How many families have had to watch a loved one die at home because the hospital refused t

Health minister Deb Matthews said it again!  She told Ottawa media that hospital cutbacks are good for us.  This in a town where the biggest hospital is facing $19 million in cuts under the Liberal's best case scenario.    The rationale is the same as before: home care will save the day.  This is not just the same rationale as last week's, it's the same rationale as the Harris government used in the 1990s when they were ruining hospital services.  But even they had to give it up and fund the hosptials in the late 1990s when community outrage began to peak. I don't think this particular rationale is going to help Matthews much.  It didn't work much in the past, so why is it going to work now?  And from what I've heard, Liberal MPPs are already getting panicky...  dallan@cupe.ca

They are cancelling elective surgeries in Ottawa this week, as two big hospitals have a lot more patients than beds.  Health care officials, as usual, talk of "perfect storms" and point the finger at various non-political causes (gastrointestinal outbreaks in nursing homes gets special mention in this case).     But the obvious factor that the media almost always misses is that the goverment forces all hospitals to have dangerously high occupancy levels. dallan@cupe.ca

"When we see hospitals close beds, that's actually in and of itself not a bad news story because so much more care is being provided in the community " -- Deb Matthews Ontario Minister of Health and LTC " Today, home-care funding as a percentage of the total health expenditure is estimated to be less than it was in 1998/99 when it was a 5.43% of the province's health-care expenditures. It is vital that the sector be resourced in order to achieve the results it is being called upon to deliver."  -- Sue VanderBent  -- Executive director, Ontario Home Care Association Hamilton dallan@cupe.ca

A few days ago I noted that Ontario Health Minister, Deb Matthews claimed, "When we see hospitals close beds, that's actually in and of itself not a bad news story because so much more care is being provided in the community " (my emphasis ). It's true the government had reached agreements with the LHINs which anticipated funding increases in 2010-11 of 4.98% for Community Care Access Centres, the organizations which fund home care services. But subsequently the government revised the agreements, and the new documents don't forecast any increase for the home care agencies -- instead they simply indicate that funding will be determined. So is Matthews blowing smoke, or will there be funding for 'so much more care' in the community? We will see. But this wouldn't be the first time government closed hospital services and tried to disguise it by claiming, falsely , that the cuts would be offset by more home care services.

The Progressive Conservatives are now attacking the Local Health Integration Networks ( LHINs ). MPP and former Tory cabinet minister Jim Wilson says: "Invoices reveal that many of the same consultants who were getting rich off of eHealth were getting even richer by billing LHINs at the same time. In fact, one consultant who happens to be McGuinty's former health advisor, billed $80,000 to the Toronto Central LHIN at the exact same time she was getting paid $327 an hour by eHealth to, among other things, write a letter to a Liberal pollster not even involved with eHealth . This diversion of much-needed health dollars is significant. As an MPP , I receive phone calls all the time from constituents who can't find doctors, timely medical procedures, long-term care beds or homecare for loved ones. At the same time, I hear from hospitals that are facing deficits, nursing homes that want to expand to meet demand, and other health agencies that are struggling. A lot of

A letter in todays Cornwall Standard Freeholder concerning proposed hospital bed cuts in Cornwall. I think these observations hold true across the province. -- Doug dallan@cupe.ca Dear Editor, The proposed cuts of hospital beds and services looks like a rerun of the 1990s, when many thousands of beds were cut across the province. By the end of the 1990s, the public in communities across the province rose up against the cuts and forced the Mike Harris government to improve funding for community hospitals like our own. It was only because of the determined campaigns by local communities that we were able to maintain our community hospitals to the extent that we have. Unfortunately, it now looks like we will have to do the same with the Dalton McGuinty Liberal government. We are going to have to light a fire under local members of the provincial parliament and get them to stand up and defend our local community. I know CUPE Local 7811 will do its part. And we know that many in