Defend Public Healthcare

Mental health hospitals in London and St. Thomas are losing 146 beds, with 76 going to hospitals in other cities and  70 being closed over three years. "In parallel to the reduction of beds there will need to be investment in the community to increase community capacity to provide care," regional health officials wrote. The LHIN CEO says the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) won't close beds unless sufficient community supports are in place.  But the go-ahead from the South West  LHIN  came even though people with severe and persistent mental illness are already on waiting lists for care in the community. "More and more of our ill family members will be on the street, in jail or in the cemetery," one local citizen wrote when asked for feedback about the closures.

As part of the recent public relations campaign by Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs), the CEO of the Northeast LHIN, Louise Paquette, has   told  Northern Life  that  they have reduced the number of alternate level of care patients in the four largest northeast hospitals by half.   The article discusses in more detail the situation in Sudbury.  Here the hospital says the number of alternate level of care (ALC) patients has fallen from a high of 190 to 210 ALC patients to just 91 ALC patients.  That would mean a reduction of somewhere between 99 and 119 ALC patients.   Sounds impressive, right?  Well here's the interesting part.  The hospital CEO credits the reduction to the opening of 116 long term care beds at St. Gabriel's and Pioneer Manor.   The government is practically allergic to opening new beds in hospitals or LTC facilities no matter how much the demand. So, this solution is definitely not typical . And notably, the numbers suggest that the governmen

Sacre-Coeur hospital in Montreal has moved 6,000 surgeries to the private business RocklandMD since 2008.  Moving work to private surgical clinics, unfortunately, is becoming more common in Canada.  In this case, however, the private surgical clinic is not just performing a few minor surgeries.  Instead it is performing an array of more serious surgeries: breast cancer operations, bariatric surgery, orthopaedic surgery, etc .  RocklandMD claims to be able to perform  a broad range of day surgeries, “from the simplest to the most complex, in various specialities and within very short times.” (They also claim to have " turnover rates of less than five minutes between operations".  Hmm...) That is a new (and troubling) level of privatization.  The thin edge of the wedge is usually to start with minor operations and tests.  The privatizers want to go well beyond that, it seems.   The Toronto Star has noted that the Quebec Health Insurance Board  reprimanded   RocklandM

For years, the province has emphasized the use of home care as the solution to the problem of hospital overloads and backlogs . Yet, even after using this approach for years, only a small minority of 'alternate level of care' (ALC) patients are actually waiting for home care (4.7%). A much larger percentage (57%) are waiting for long term care.  But long term care is a service the province is determined not to expand very much. Many other ALC hospital patients are waiting for a different sort of hospital bed than the one they are in.  Out of the 4,256 ALC patients in hospitals, up to about a thousand patients fall into this category. While officials often talk as if ALC patients should not be in a hospital,  in reality, many more ALC hospital  patients are waiting for hospital care than are waiting for home care. Until the announcement last Friday of funding for 221 hospital beds to relieve ER pressures, there was no sign that the Liberal government had any intentio

Alex Munter the newly minted CEO of the Champlain LHIN   makes it a bit more clear than is usually the case, that the focus on squeezing hospital beds has now spread to squeezing long term care beds.  Hospitals have lost thousands of beds over the last twenty years, while LTC beds have increased.  But the focus on diverting patients from hospital beds to home is broadening to include diverting patients from  LTC beds. It certainly is a very worthwhile goal for elders to stay in their homes rather than move to a long term care facility.  Where it can be done, it should be done. But is this new focus just a cover for a reduction in public care?  The wait lists for a long term care bed have exploded in the last few years as government has squeezed hospital funding and slowed the creation of new LTC beds.  Moreover, the large majority of patients in hospitals designated "alternate level of care" (ALC) are waiting for a long term care bed or for a different sort of hospita

Ministry of Healt h and  media reports  place the total hospital funding increase announced Friday to reduce Emergency Room (ER) wait times at $100 million for  74 hospitals.    Above and beyond the $28.2 million for short stay beds discussed earlier, that leaves $71.8 million for other ER projects.  The Ministry says that another  $47.4 million will be distributed among the 74 hospitals to fund other projects to decrease  ER wait times .  This would include new hospital initiatives and  initiatives already underway.   Which means that at least some of this new money will not result in any new capacity at the hospitals.    The Ministry cites these as examples of activities that could be funded:  Expanding  and reorganizing ER staff;   Creating ER rapid assessment zones;  Renovating ERs to improve patient flow.  The Ministry also  notes  $10.3 million to reduce the time ER patients spend waiting for an initial assessment, and $14 million in "variable incentive funding"

We now have more reports of hospitals that will receive new funding for 'short stay' beds. Beyond Friday's announcement of funding for 21 beds at London Health Sciences, there has now been announcements for ten beds apiece for Trillium and  Credit Valley; eleven at Thunder Bay Regional; and nine at Sudbury Regional. That means there should be announcements coming for another 160 beds at 19 hospitals, if the government's promises are to be met.  The total cost for all the beds is placed at $28.2 million for 2011-12. But please also note: in 2010 the province lost over 600 hospital beds. So, even if there are no other bed cuts in 2011 (which would be a darn good question to clarify), Friday's announcement of funding for 221 short stay beds will still leave us behind where we were last year. So while it's good to see the Ontario government recognize that dealing with hospital capacity and bed occupancy is part of the solution to the ER back-ups, ambulance