Defend Public Healthcare

Health care privatization continues to come to Ontario via the Liberal government's version of "community care."  Most obviously this comes by moving services from public hospitals to poorly regulated and for-profit retirement  homes.   That has been a repeated theme in the Liberal government's version of community care. Alex E. Proimos Another mainstay is moving services to for-profit "home care" providers.  Except, now for-profit home care is often for-profit clinical care.     Typically, the Liberal line is we need to move services and clinics out of public hospitals and into the home.   But now the government organizations that oversee home care (Community Care Access Centres  or CCACs) are beginning to celebrate moving services out of the home and back into clinics.  But this time the clinics are run by for-profit corporations, not public hospitals.   In a recent news story sparked by the opening of a new clinic, the Erie-St. Cla

MUHC The Washington Post reports that the sales "of Canadian project-finance bonds are lower this year as an ongoing investigation of alleged corruption in the Quebec construction industry makes the debt more expensive to issue." The American paper adds that the "inquiry into corruption in the Quebec construction industry, which led to the resignation of Montreal Mayor Gerald Tremblay on Nov. 5, is souring sentiment among investors in private-public partnership bonds linked to projects for hospitals and universities in Canada’s second-largest province." The McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) P3 project is now under police investigation. The National Post reports that questions are being raised whether " illicit cash payments helped the SNC-Lavalin consortium win the MUHC contract." Three weeks ago the police raided the downtown headquarters of the MUHC. The National   Post notes one unconfirmed report alleged that there was a secret $2

There has been no progress stopping the spread of superbugs in Ontario hospitals according to government data. Reported C. difficile rates are about the same as they have been, starting this past year at 0.35 cases per thousand patient days and ending it at the same level.    The annual average was also 0.35. Month Rate Oct '11 0.35 Nov 0.32 Dec 0.36 Jan '12 0.35 Feb 0.38 Mar 0.37 Apr 0.31 May 0.32 Jun 0.34 Jul 0.38 Aug 0.32 Sep 0.35 Ave. 0.35 Similarly, C. difficile rates in the first year of public reporting ( Aug 2008-July 2009 ) also averaged 0.35 per thousand patient days: Month Rate Aug-08 0.39 Sep-08 0.44 Oct-08 0.39 Nov-08 0.35 Dec-08 0.35 Jan-09 0.36 Feb-09

Health Sciences North hospital in Sudbury is planning to replace 30 hospital beds with a 25 bed unit inside a private retirement home, the  CBC  reports. OCHU/CUPE members protest earlier bed closures at Health Sciences North Richard Joly of the Northeast Community Care Access Centre says  "We are committed to reducing the population that are currently residing in hospital." Like many other hospitals, Health Sciences North is grappling with a significant deficit as government funding is squeezed.   Six million dollars in the case of HSN. Hospital officials claim the hospital beds cost $750 per day each and putting 25 beds in a private retirement home would cost $4 million less than having them at the Memorial hospital site.  In February, the hospital will stop funding the 30 beds. Similar strategies have been tried in other locales with disastrous results. In Windsor , a local hospital paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to remodel a for-profit retirement hom

Another home care funding announcement came out today, this time for Mississauga-Halton. Mississauga The news this time was a little better, with a 4.1% funding increase for home care via $5.12 million for the Mississauga-Halton Community Care Access Centre.   That is a bit better than the Hamilton-Niagara area, which received 3.25%, and the Ottawa area, which received 3.74%.  This is the first CCAC to actually get the 4% funding increase suggested by the provincial government.

Dr. Michael Rachlis , a well known expert on the health care system, suggests there is more to the recent deal the province hatched with the Ontario Medical Association than has been reported. He estimates that increased utilization and "fee drift" will mean an extra $200 million for doctors.   With about 24,000 full time (equivalent) doctors in the province, that works out to an extra $8,333 each.  That is small change compared to some of the income improvements the docs have achieved over the last decade, but it is pretty significant by anybody else's measure.   Certainly it's a lot better than what the McGuinty government is offering to the rest of us further on down the pecking order (see the McGuinty government's list of concessions demands for its own workers here ) . OCHU long ago flagged the mighty increases the doctors were getting from the McGuinty government, but this was only identified through a retrospective review of annual government Budget

As expected, the McGuinty government has made a long series of concession demands at the OPSEU "OPS" negotiations, where OPSEU is bargaining on behalf of 36,000 provincial civil servants. Here is what OPSEU saw from the government on the first day: A two-year agreement. A two-year pay freeze. Creation of a new step on the wage grid 3 per cent lower than the lowest step. Reduce sick time payments after six days from 75 per cent to 66 and two-thirds per cent. Implement two unpaid days for more than six continuous absences. Ability to top up sick leave only to 75 per cent and only with vacation credits. Change benefits to a maximum annual dollar limit for all services instead of service specific caps. Increased use of temporary employees and consultants. Gutting Job Security (Article 20 and Appendix 40) Increase full-time conversion unclassified employees from 18 months to 24 months. Elimination of termination pay under Reasonable Efforts Elimina