Defend Public Healthcare

The report  Ontario Collective Bargaining Agreement Expirations has just come out from the Ontario Ministry of Labour and it provides some interesting information on 2011 bargaining: There are 2,571 expiring collective agreements in 2011 covering 496,118 union members. This makes 2011 an average year (2004 saw 714,000 union members with expiring agreements, while2005 saw 328,000).   Expirations are concentrated in the months of January, March, June and December, with March and December especially big months. Broader Public Sector (BPS) agreements account for 48% of all agreements expiring in 2011 and cover approximately 68% of the total number of employees.  That's 278,296 BPS union members.  Major negotiations in the BPS for 2011 include hospitals (March, October), municipalities (March, December), nursing homes and homes for the aged (March, September), Toronto Transit Commission (March), GO Transit (June), universities (April, June), College Employer Council (support staf

OPSEU has announced that after eight days of bargaining with the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) for their central paramedical bargaining group, they are now preparing to take unresolved issues to arbitration.  OPSEU notes that due to government policy, the OHA could not agree to any item put forward by the union if there was a cost attached to it.  Some other modest issues have been settled.   Arbitration dates have been set for June 11-12, with employer and union responses to submissions to be completed by June 28. By agreement, the arbitration panel chaired by William Kaplan will issue its decision by mid-September 2011, i.e. before the fall provincial election. The bargaining process is still continuing between the hospitals and the Ontario Nurses Association.  ONA has completed four days of mediation with the Ontario Hospital Association, meeting on March 8, 15, 16 and 17, 2011 for its Registered Nurses group.  The parties have been assisted by Kevin Burkett, a respected me

A report  from the Ottawa Citizen  indicates that the Queensway-Carleton Hospital is considering cutting elective surgeries for up to 10 weeks beginning this summer to deal with a $2 million budget shortfall, . C hief executive Tom Schonberg  cautions that the plan is based on a worst-case scenario -a one per cent funding hike -and could change as hospital funding allocations become clearer over the next two months. Health Minister Deb Matthews applauded the hospital.  "The Queensway-Carleton Hospital is doing exactly what they should be doing.  They're being responsible. They're developing a plan to work within their budget. ...(Not performing surgeries) when staff are on holidays -that seems like a reasonable strategy to me." The McGuinty government has over the past two years delayed telling Ontario hospitals how much funding they would receive until June or July, well into the new fiscal year, which started on April 1. Even the province-wide 1.5% base funding

Scottish hospitals have reduced C. Difficile superbug infections by 37% over the past year.   Cases of MRSA were also down, with 82 new infections recorded between October and December 2009, down from 119 cases in the same period of 2009. Scottish Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon  said : "The Government has put 1,000 additional cleaners in our hospitals, brought an end to the privatization of hospital cleaning contracts and introduced a tough new inspection regime by the Healthcare Environment Inspectorate. "With the extra efforts, extra investment and contribution of people across the NHS we have made Scotland's hospitals cleaner and hospital treatment better and safer." dallan@cupe.ca

A new report indicates that 18% of acute care beds were occupied by patients awaiting an alternate level of care (“ALC patients”).    ALC patients are waiting for a different level of care than what they are currently receiving in the hospital (e.g. a patient waiting for a complex continuing care bed who is in an acute care bed).  While about half of these patients are awaiting long term care, the ALC designation does not necessarily mean that they should not be in hospital. About 47% of the 2,812 ALC patients in acute care beds are waiting for a long term care bed.   Most of the rest of the ALC patients in acute care beds are awaiting other sorts of hospital beds: rehabilitation (385 patients), complex continuing care (229 patients), convalescent care (118 patients), and palliative care (153 patients).  Surprisingly, only a relatively small number are awaiting home care (149 patients), assisted living or supportive housing (83 patients), or simply to go home (64 patients). Another

A new  report  indicates that on average in February 2011, 773 patients were in Ontario Emergency Rooms waiting for an acute care hospital bed.  These patients alone would fill 4.9% of the existing stock of 15,711 acute care beds in the province.  Bed occupancy at Ontario hospitals is about 97.9% dallan@cupe.ca

Government often talks about home care as a replacement for hospital care.  But with drastic underfunding of home care, the reality falls far short.  Here's an eye-opening two minute video from Operation Maple. dallan@cupe.ca