Defend Public Healthcare

Patients and family members have settled their lawsuit over a superbug infection at a Quebec hospital. At a coroner's inquiry into the outbreak, the hospital's unionized workers said the outbreak should be blamed on staffing problems that worsened after the institution cut four cleaning jobs. As a result of staffing shortages, patients' rooms were only disinfected during the week and bathrooms in the ER were cleaned just once a day. Dr. Anne Vibien,on staff at the hospital in St-Hyacinthe in 2006 told the inquest that a strict plan drawn up by administrators to increase disinfection procedures was never enacted because of staff shortages.  Rooms were not disinfected often enough, she added. Toilets in the emergency room were cleaned just once a day. Sixteen patients died.  The hospital has admitted there were problems with the cleaning procedure but claimed there were no direct links to the outbreak.   The families of patients who died after contracting C. difficile

The number of full time equivalent staff in Ontario long term care (LTC) facilities increased from 51,898 to 62,739 between  2003/4  and to  2009/10 .  That's an increase of 10,841 staff, or 20.9%. That is significantly more rapid than the growth in the number of approved beds (which increased by 8.8% over the same period, as discussed earlier this week).  This may reflect the growing age and infirmity of residents in LTC homes. Still staffing falls far short of need. Will the staffing increase continue? It's hard to see other alternatives in the longer term.  But right now there is a decided lack of enthusiasm for long term care from the Minister of Health and LTC and problems in the industry are bubbling down south, thanks to government austerity. Kaiser   reports that the stocks of US nursing-home operators — and the landlords that rent to them — have tanked since late July, when the federal US government announced an 11.1 percent cut in Medicare reimbursements (thanks

After repeated  British reports revealing failure   of public private partnerships (P3s) for public infrastructure projects, the British Chancellor has announced a fundamental review of the government's use of P3s (or, as the Brits call them, PFIs) .   A recent House of Commons Committee report put the cost of capital for a typical PFI project at 8%, which is double the government rate of around 4%.  And for capital intensive projects like new hospital buildings, that adds up to a whole lot of extra cost for the public to swallow.   Chancellor George Osborne said    “We have consistently voiced concerns about the misuse of PFI in the past and we have already taken steps to reduce costs and improve transparency... We want a new delivery model which draws on private sector innovation but at a lower cost to the taxpayer and with better value for public services.” The Financial Times suggests that the government wants more "direct" private sector investment in p

Stats Canada research shows that between 2003/4 and 2009/10 the total number of residents in "homes for the aged" (a phrase  used by Stats Can to mean a range of LTC facilities)  increased from 76,866 to 84,873  in Ontario.  That is an increase of 8,007 residents, or 10.4%.   The number of people aged 85 or over in these homes increased quite a bit more rapidly,  growing by 18.8%. The 85 and over age group are now a majority in the homes. The number of 'approved' beds is increasing more slowly, growing by 7,186 beds, going from 81,849  beds to 89,035 .  That is an 8.8% increase. In fact, the nursing home beds are not keeping up with the explosion in the number of people 85 and over, the main age group in the homes.   As reported a few days ago, the population 85 and over is growing very rapidly -- roughly four times more rapidly than the number of  LTC beds . Contrary to what the Health Minister has suggested , these new nursing home beds do not make up for th

A new Statistics Canada report on residential care facilities indicates that expenditures per resident per day in "homes for the aged" (the phrase used by Stats Can to mean a range of LTC facilities) are considerably less in Ontario than in Canada as a whole. Quite a bit less, in fact: $28 per  resident per day. Operating facilities Expenditures per resident-day Number Approved beds   dollars Canada 2,136 215,313 183.6 Ontario 738 89,035 155.3 All other provinces, except for PEI and New Brunswick, have higher expenditures.  Some provinces are considerably higher (Quebec $254.30, Saskatchewan $216.70, Alberta $201.80). At the same time, income from residents for accommodation makes up a much larger portion of total income in Ontario homes for the aged than in homes for the aged in Canada as a whole. Homes for the Aged

A  Sun news article  yesterday  led with the (correct) observation that " Ontario’s plan to spend billions of tax dollars on hospital construction will not significantly increase the number of beds".  Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews countered as follows : ”It’s not about more beds. In many cases that’s not what the need is. It’s for modern up-to-date emergency departments, operating rooms. The rooms themselves, the patient rooms, in the old hospitals, simply do not meet today’s infection control standards, so the new hospitals have far more single rooms which will prevent things like C. difficile infection...We’ve also offset it (i.e. 18,500 hospital bed cuts -- DA) by more than 10,000 long-term care beds and beds in other settings outside of acute care hospitals.  So there are a lot more beds now than there were but they’re not in acute care hospitals and that’s actually a move in the right direction.” There are a number of problems with these arguments. Most b

Federal Finance Minster Jim Flaherty has indicated that there is no promise to increase the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) to the provinces by 6% per year beyond the first two years after the ten year accord expires in 2014. The public won the promise for the two years during the election -- but that's where it ends, for now. More bad news: the  Globe and Mail  reports that newly re-elected Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall wants to  tie federal funding 'to health care "innovation," a term sometimes used to describe increased private-sector involvement.' Wall wants to create more conditions for his province to meet before it receives federal funding, it seems. Meanwhile, the federal government doesn't much bother to ensure that  the provinces meet the existing conditions for federal funding, i.e. the five principles of the Canada Health Act that guarantee universal, comprehensive, accessible, portable, and publicly administered health care.