Defend Public Healthcare

The BC Health Coalition has released a report showing that for-profit clinics are charging patients extra to jump the queue for services covered by public health care:  "Research conducted over three months (June – August, 2010) by BCHC staff has revealed that for-profit clinics across the province continue to openly charge patients additional fees to jump the queue for services that are publicly insured. " The BC Health Coalition’s report can be found here.   Also this week, the BC government announced extra funding for 'patient focused funding' (aka price based funding), a funding model that has some similarities to 'fee for service' funding used in the US.   BC is   reported to be increasing this form of funding to 20% of hospital funding by 2012-13.  The NDP has called on the government to audit private clinics as they could be getting a share of 'patient-focused funding' for surgeries and MRIs. BC Health Services Minister Kevin Falcon has

As  noted in a blog earlier this week (on a recommendation to start funding retirement homes), some hospitals started to transfer their hospital patients to retirement homes a couple of years ago as a response to hospital overcrowding. The Queensway Carleton Hospital in Ottawa was an early adopter of this trick, shipping patients out of the hospital and into a for-profit retirement home. Here’s what happened, with dire consequences for one senior. Between May 2008 and December 2009, when the trial run ended, Queensway Carleton patients were discharged to a retirement home in the city's southwest. Over 19 months, some $2 million in public funding went to the retirement home to pay for 30 beds and the associated staff to provide care. The money came from the Queensway Carleton and the Champlain Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), Eastern Ontario's health authority. A 92-year-old Ottawa woman was transferred from the Queensway Carleton Hospital to the privately run ret

The Ontario Health Coalition is hosting a Health Action Assembly and Conference on the sustainability of health care. The Assembly and conference take place Saturday November 6th and Sunday November 7th, 2010 at the Bond Place Hotel, 55 Dundas St. E., Toronto. The OHC, as community-labour coalition, plays a vital role defending public health care (and public hospitals).  The Assembly and conference will be a great way for local union activists to learn more about the challenges to public hospital services and the community campaigns that are so necessary to defend them.  Please click here  to learn more and to register for the assembly and conference. dallan@cupe.ca

Sault Ste. Marie has won  its battle to maintain funding for seven mental health beds the Sault Area Hospital was scheduled to lose when it moved to its new facility this spring.  The move is expected to save three or four jobs at the Sault Area Hospital and keep service at current levels. Other modest victories were achieved in Ottawa . The Ministry of Health and LTC has agreed to fund four beds for babies who need extra care at birth at both the Montfort Hospital and Queensway Carleton Hospital. The annual cost of the initiative totals $2.6 million. (Perhaps I'm just a cynic, but we are getting closer to an election, aren't we?) Less helpful was an editorial in the St. Catharine's Standard .  The piece notes that the Regional Municipality of Niagara will likely consider the Ontario Health Coalition's proposal that the province investigate the Niagara Health System (the NHS -- which has made a hash of things by cutting Emergency Rooms among other things). 

Cornwall Community Hospital has come out with a new, draft five year plan .  The plan calls for a focus on "core services".  It states: CCH has identified the need to move to a more coordinated and strategic approach to determining the breadth and scope of clinical services based on community need, available resources, capacity and talent.  CCH can not provide all services to all people and recognizes the need to employ evidence based best practices in its core service areas. This certainly fits with the McGuinty government's focus on shrinking the role of public hospitals.  The plan also, however, raises the idea of the hospital focusing on health and health care "versus being just a hospital".  This is perhaps the main tension for smaller hospitals: see their services paired back to a smaller and smaller list of 'core services' or become a hub for a range of health care services in their local community. The former tendency is certainly gainin

The push to privatize hospital services (and increase the privatization of long term care) took another step in the Ottawa area this week. This time through a proposal for the government to fund retirement homes, facilities which are overwhelming private and  for-profit.  To date, retirement homes have not been funded by government (although recently hospitals have taken to sending patients to them, sometimes with disastrous results). This proposal comes as the provincial government cuts hospital beds, cuts home care services, and slows to a trickle the creation of new long term care beds. dallan@cupe.ca

With hospital cuts, there has been some problems with ambulance offload delay, as paramedics wait longer to offload their patients to overloaded hospital staff.  As noted earlier , Niagara region reports a 68% increase in offload delays This in turn puts pressure on EMS response times as paramedics are forced to wait in ERs. Some municipal leaders have mused about sending more fire trucks to EMS calls, as a way to respond to this problem.    But fire trucks are among the most expensive items for municipalities. The 2007 Performance Benchmarking Report (from the Ontario municipal Chief Administrative Officers and City Managers) reports that  each fire vehicle cost $281 per in-service hour in Hamilton, $284 in Toronto, $239 in London, $270 in Thunder Bay, and $207 in Ottawa. The median cost for urban municipalities was $239 per hour, the same as the Toronto rate. In contrast, one hour of in-service ambulance time cost $147 in 2007. With a $92 differential that means a savings of