Defend Public Healthcare

The headline remains the same as last year's: hospital funding will increase 1.5% in 2011-12.  But buried in Table 20 of Chapter II  of the Ontario Budget is the fuller story: total hospital funding is expected to increase 4.7%. TABLE 20. Selected Expense Risks and Sensitivities Program/Sector 2011–12 Assumption 2011–12 Sensitivity Health Sector Annual growth of 4.3 per cent. One per cent change in health spending: $476 million. Hospitals' Sector Expense Annual growth of 4.7 per cent. One per cent change in hospitals' sector expense: $212 million. Drug Programs Utilization Annual growth of less than 4.8 per cent. One per cent change in program expenditure of all drug programs: $43 million (seniors and social assistance recipients). Long-Term Care Homes 77,800 long-term care home beds. Average Provincial annual operating cost per bed in a long-term care home is $48,300. One per cent change in number of beds: approximately $38 million. Home Care Approximately 20 m

Once again, the Ontario government has reduced the projected deficit for 2010-11.  This time, they estimate in the provincial Budget that it will be $16.7 billion.  That is $3 billion less than planned in the 2010 provincial budget.  This is just the latest in a series of reductions in deficit estimates emanating from the Ontario government, many recounted in this blog. This year's deficit (for 2011-12) is estimated (suspiciously) at just almost the same amount, despite a growing economy.  So we may well see one more (happy) announcement concerning the deficit before the provincial election in the fall. dallan@cupe.ca

A major limit to the growth of for-profit medical and surgical clinics in Canada has been a prohibition against physicians billing public medicare systems while also charging patients for medically necessary services through a private clinic. This has led  many doctors to stay in the public system because they can’t get enough work in the private system to fully support themselves, says Cory Verbauwhede, a lawyer for Médecins Québécois pour le Régime Public, a pro-medicare group in Quebec.  But the Canadian Medical Association Journal reports specialists in Quebec have launched a lawsuit in hopes of striking down the one-or-the-other rule.  “The law forbidding publicly funded doctors from working in the same setting as a non-participating doctor impedes on the right of people to associate themselves,” says Dr. Gaétan Barette, president of Quebec’s medical specialists’ federation. The CMAJ reports that Ontario does not regulate such clinics and does not even keep track of h

The last ten years has seen a growth of 240,000 in unionized public sector workers in Ontario.  That's an increase of 35% (from 679,000 to 919,000) according to data in a new report from the Canadian Labour Congress. Most of this growth, however, is simply due to growth in the public sector labour force, rather than an increase in the percentage of   public sector workers who are organized (or "public sector union density").  The percentage of public sector workers who are unionized increased only modestly, from 68.6% to 70.7%.  That is still a lower public sector union density than exists across all of Canada, which now sits at 74.9% (a small increase from 73.9% a decade ago).   Despite the modest increase in public sector union density, the rate of unionization of all Ontario  workers actually fell slightly, from 28.3% to 27.9%. This is due to the rather sharp decline in the rate of private sector unionization: from 18.1% to 14.9%.   Not only did the rate of private

A new study  in the academic journal Archives of Internal Medicin e from researchers at the University of California indicates that the risk of MRSA superbug infection in intensive care units (ICUs) was sharply reduced through enhanced cleaning practices. The study notes: "Admission to intensive care unit rooms previously occupied by carriers of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or vancomycin-resistant enteroccoci (VRE) had been found to confer a 40% increased risk of acquisition, presumably through environmental contamination. Subsequently, a cleaning intervention was shown to reduce MRSA and VRE room contamination." The study evaluated "the effect of this intervention on the risk of acquiring MRSA and VRE from prior room occupants." With the enhanced cleaning intervention, MRSA infection was lowered from 3.0% to 1.5%, and VRE infection from 3.0% to 2.2%.  dallan@cupe.ca

Hospital bosses in Britain have slashed the amount they spend on food for patients, the  British paper the Daily Mail reports .   The most miserly hospitals pay 3 British pounds a day --  a paltry 1 pound per meal (less than $1.60 Canadian). The average British prison meal costs  2.10 pounds. Figures obtained by the Mirror reveal food budgets at hospitals in England in 2009-10 had been cut by as much as 62% compared with five years previously.   A total of 36 out of 191 hospitals analysed cut spending on food in the five-year period. Twenty hospitals spend less than 5 pounds a day feeding each patient. The spending cuts come despite the cost of ingredients soaring by a third and claims from bosses that their food is   improving. Roger Goss, co-director of Patient Concern, said the   problem   would only get   worse   as hospital budgets are savaged by the Conservative government.  "Hospital food   is a disaster. Each hospital is allowed to decide how much it spends but the D

The North East LHIN has maintained that 152 new beds at Villa St. Gabriel and Pioneer Manor would be enough to house transitional care patients currently at the Memorial site of Sudbury Regional Hospital.  But hospital President Dr. Denis Roy told the Sudbury Sta r,  "I'm not sure I can look you in the eyes and say there won't be any patients left" after those 152 beds are filled.  "There will be patients left." But (as usual) it remains unclear who will pick up the tab.  "We're in the fog here with regards to that," said Roy.  The LHIN hasn't said yes or no. The Star reports that the hospital is going ahead with plans to open several new clinics at its Memorial site, to provide  more services on an out-patient basis rather than in hospital or in the emergency department. The hospital also planned to operate 40-75 surge beds at the Memorial site after transitional patients were transferred to the long term care facilities. Surge