Defend Public Healthcare

The  Ontario government's report on collective bargaining agreements came out yesterday for the month of January. Naturally it included the "agreements" for school board employees.  It also included settlements in other parts of the public sector.  Although not imposed, annual wage settlements in these other parts of the public sector were also close to zero (six public administration settlements covering 36,000 employees saw an annual average wage increase of 0.1% and ten health and social service agreements covering 4,300 employees saw an average annual increase of 0.7%). In total, public sector wage settlements covering just under 309,000 employees will see an annual average wage increase during the life of the contracts of 0.0%. (Of course, the government imposed benefit concessions as well.) The government also reports private sector settlements covering 17,000 employees.  Their average annual wage increase is 2.1%. In an  updated version  of the same repo

A new report from the Chief Medical Officer of Health in England reports that "rates of  C. difficile  have fallen consistently in all English regions in recent years. MRSA has fallen markedly and is now very low in many areas." As noted  in  November, there is no evidence of that in Ontario, as the incidence of both MRSA and C. Difficile is about the same as when public reporting started (i.e. over about the same period as when the rates of MRSA and C. Difficile were falling in England). While England has made good progress on MRSA and C. Difficile, the new report also indicates an alarming increase in other types of bacteria including new strains of  E coli  and  Klebsiella , which causes pneumonia. There are now many more cases of these than MRSA. As many as 5,000 patients die each year in the UK of gram negative sepsis – where the bacterium gets into the bloodstream – and in half the cases the bacterium is resistant to drugs, the Guardian reports . &qu

Aside from the predictable (but fun)  response from Deb Matthews to yesterday's Ontario Health Coalition report outlining cuts in Ontario hospitals ("It is OK" to close hospital beds, she opined), we did get a snippet or two of information from the government.  The Star reports the Health Minister's office also made these claims: 70 per cent of hospitals have seen increases  -- 63 hospitals.  This is inaccurate in some way. There are about 159 hospital corporations in Ontario (there's many more hospital facilities ).  So if 63 is accurate, that would be 39% of hospital corporations got an increase.  If it is 70%, that would be about 111 hospital corporations. So somebody got the math wrong. The largest decrease that a hospital has received is 1.2 per cent and the largest increase is 2.8 per cent. About 81 per cent of hospitals have seen no more than a 1 per cent swing, up or down. So, if this is true, the large majority of hospitals got either a very

Contracting out of medical transcription work is becoming more common in Ontario hospitals. So it is noteworthy that our sister union in BC, the Hospital Employees Union,  reports  today that "the cost of outsourcing medical transcription services in the Lower Mainland has increased by an average of 26 per cent a year over the last five years, according to financial documents produced by health authorities." Regardless, the health authorities "plan to completely contract out in-house medical transcription later this year and fire about 130 medical transcriptionists (MTs), who currently work directly for health authorities." Currently, about 50 per cent of medical transcription volume is contracted out in B.C. HEU has also raised questions about the accuracy and privacy of patients’ medical reports when transcribed by a network of home-based workers across the country.  The Union has asked B.C.’s privacy commissioner to investigate. Photo: Wistechcolleges

A senior director of the North East LHIN has told the   North Bay Nipissing  that the government cut cataract surgeries by 10% across the province this year.  This has forced the North Bay Regional Health Centre to stop such surgeries until April 1 (the beginning of the fiscal year).   Another recent report indicates that the Hotel Dieu in Kingston is now performing 10 cataract surgeries per week until the end of March -- down from 60 per week. While, in the past, global funding allowed local hospitals to determine local needs, the government's new "fee for service funding" (aka "patient based funding") gives all that power to the province.  For some reason, Toronto decided to cut 10% across the province, it seems.   Local decision making anyone?  Moreover, where was the public discussion (or even notification) of this decision?  We are almost at the end of the fiscal year, and this is the first that I, at least, have ever heard of a decisio

Health Edition reports that the Quebec Health Minister has decided not to renew the contract with  RocklandMD, the private hospital that has done about 9,000 publicly funded surgeries since 2008 in Quebec. The contract expires September 2014.  While the private clinics have tried to edge into the business via simpler surgeries, 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.” The public health insurer found  that RocklandMD was charging people illegal facility fees (a charge often leveled against private clinics).  RocklandMD disputes this and is resisting attempts to recover the money.   Health Edition reports that the matter is headed  for   (where else?) the courts.   Quebec plans to bring all the surgeries back into the public system.  Meanwhile, Ontario is looking to turn surgeries over to private mini-hospitals.    Photo:SCFP

The Throne Speech from the new Liberal government of Kathleen Wynne sticks fairly close to previous Liberal policy. But it does make a few noteworthy new turns. With the past Liberal government, the claim was they would expand home care. The problem was their expansion was more imaginary than real -- and the claimed expansion was served up as justification for real cuts in hospital and long term care. There is barely any change here: "Along with all parties in the legislature, it (the government) understands the pressing need to expand access to home care in Ontario. And so your government will continue to expand the support available to people in their homes, and to address the needs of men and women across Ontario currently waiting for the home care services they require." So, if we take them at their word, they will "continue" their existing policy. Whoopee.  The good news? At least there is some recognition here that they need to address the