Monthly Archives: February 2010

The Ottawa Hospital is the latest to announce positions are being cut to balance its budget. Assuming a two per cent funding increase for this coming year, the Ottawa Hospital has to trim its budget by almost $19 million. More than 100 positions are being eliminated at the hospital, including 4.35 FTEs from among OPSEU represented positions. … The Sudbury Regional Hospital is cutting 41,000 cleaning hours at the hospital and expanding contracting out. The affected members belong to CUPE. …  The Ontario government is launching a probe into two mistaken mastectomies performed at the Windsor Hotel-Dieu Hospital dating back to 2003. The actions of two doctors is also under investigation by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The Toronto Star reports that “seven serious cases of concern” have been the subject of a pathology review. … Dr. José Pereira, medical chief of palliative care services at Bruyère Contining Care and The Ottawa Hospital, has told the LHIN that Eastern Ontario needs more palliative care services to allow people to spend their final days in a more humane and less costly settings, such as hospices and nursing homes. Reported in the Ottawa Citizen, Pereira said on any given day between 10 and 16 terminally ill patients at The Ottawa Hospital wait for transfer to a hospice or nursing home. … Seniors Minister Gerry Phillips says he’ll introduce legislation later this spring that will ensure all retirement homes are regulated. The bill will require retirement homes to assess new residents and tell them what services they will be getting. The homes will also be made to meet standards in infection control, safety, staff training and resident services. In Ontario there are about 750 retirement homes serving 41,000 residents.

Windsor-area hospitals are considering changes to surgical protocols after an experienced Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital surgeon misread a pathology report and performed an unnecessary mastectomy last year. The changes may include having more than one health care professional look at the patient’s pre-surgery report or ensuring the surgeon reads the pathology report at least one more time before operating. … After coming under fire for issuing a sole-sourced contract to Courtyard Consulting, the Champlain LHIN is now claiming that it wasn’t sole-sourced after all. “It was unfortunately our fault,” Marie Fourtier told the Ottawa Citizen. The chair of the Champlain LHIN said “we declared it as a sole-source contract, but that was our mistake.” The LHIN is now claiming that there was a second competing firm that bid several thousand dollars higher than the $59,000 contract awarded to Courtyard. The contract was to develop a consistent methodology for Eastern Ontario hospitals to track wait times. Courtyard had come under public scrutiny last year during the e-Health scandal, having been awarded millions in untendered contracts from the Crown Agency. Several employees have ties to senior figures at e-Health, including one who was a former advisor to Premier Dalton McGuinty. … MPP Norm Miller and Huntsville and District Councillor Fran Coleman finally got their meeting with the Minister of Health after complaining about access during question period. Miller and Coleman presented the Minister with petitions asking for a one-time five per cent ($3.4 million) increase to Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare’s operating budget. “She didn’t respond,” Miller told Cottage Country Now, “she didn’t respond directly that she would give a definite answer (to look into funding).” Coleman has asked the LHIN to organize a public meeting about the hospital’s $5.8 million shortfall. … Who owns the former Burk’s Falls and District Health Centre? Glenn Miller, reeve of Ryerson Township, told the local media the building may still be under local ownership. “If we got back to the original agreement it looks like either the Village of Burk’s Falls or a group of 13 municipalities still own it.” The ownership of the building may be an important piece in the battle to save the health care facility. Last year Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare closed down the facility with no community consultation or involvement of the LHIN. The Ministry’s plan is to renovate the building as home to a new Family Health Team. Meanwhile, the local communities are upset that equipment purchased with funds donated to the Burk’s Falls hospital are being removed to Huntsville and Bracebridge. … Another outbreak of antibiotic resistant bacteria has occurred at the Owen Sound hospital. The Grey Bruce Health Services has closed a unit to new adminissions and is restricting visitors after an outbreak of VRE (vancomycin resistant enterococcus). The same unit was closed twice last year due to similar outbreaks. … Kevin Smith, president and CEO of Hamilton’s St. Joseph’s Healthcare, has been named chair of the Ontario Hospital Association Board. …. Dr. Denis-Richard Roy began new duties as CEO of Sudbury Regional Hospital January 11. Dr. Roy was formerly CEO of the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montreal prior to coming to Sudbury. … The Hamilton Spectator suggests the Premier needs to answer the questions he’s asked in question period. The issue came up after NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked McGuinty about a 5 per cent cut in surgeries at Hamilton Health Sciences. The Premier answered the question by speaking about family health teams and how they were combating the doctor shortage. “McGuinty does himself no favours by ducking and weaving,” the newspaper’s editorial stated. “That’s not leadership, it’s a pathetic attempt at self-preservation.”

The first week back in the legislature was dominated by questions on the Local Health Integration Networks and hospital cuts.

These included:

• Why the LHINs were not included in new rules prohibiting sole-source contracting. Tory Leader Tim Hudak raised a sole-sourced $80,000 contract between the Toronto Central LHIN and the Courtyard Group, a Liberal-friendly consulting firm. The contract was to help implement a diabetes strategy. Hudak linked a number of those in the contract with the e-health scandal. Hudak said that after e-health, the same consultants were coming back for “second helpings” from the LHINs.
• PC health critic Christine Elliott raised questions about  the qualifications of LHIN board members who happened to also be significant financial contributors to the McGuinty Liberals. That list included Juanita Gledhill, Chair of the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN, the same LHIN that approved closure of the ERs at Port Colborne and Fort Erie.
• With the LHINs under financial scrutiny, the Premier stated that the Minister of Health brought in tough new rules to increase accountability and transparency at the LHINs.
• NDP Leader Andrea Horwath asked how the McGuinty government could pass on $4.5 billion in corporate tax cuts while cutting services, including the Toronto St. Joseph’s pain clinic, one of several services recently scheduled for closure by the cash-strapped hospital. “They’ve left hospitals and clinics across the province making random cuts to front-line services while money we cannot spare is being given away to corporate tax cuts.”
• Both parties contrasted the $15 million bailout of the Toronto Grace Hospital during a by-election with cuts to hospitals in other communities. PC Health Critic Christine Elliott quoted the vice-chair of the Grace Hospital as saying “thank god for by-elections.”
• PC MPP Norm Miller said the Minister of Health refused to meet with him and Muskoka councillor Fran Coleman because it was “inappropriate for the minister to discuss budget issues,” yet felt no qualms about intervening in the case of the Toronto hospital. Miller also presented a petition calling for an additional 5 per cent in operating funding for Muskoka Algonquin to preserve rehab services under threat. The two were eventually granted the meeting with the Health Minister.
• NDP MPP Paul Miller raised layoffs at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton and at Hamilton Health Sciences, suggesting even more cuts were around the corner.
• PC MPP Ted Arnott raised the issue of slow ambulance response time in Erin (see story on the BLOG)
• PC Leader Tim Hudak noted that the number of LHIN positions on the sunshine list (those earning more than $100k per year) had grown by 150 per cent, from 40 to 95 in three years. Executive salaries at the LHIN were also up by 213 per cent. Hudak contrasted the salaries with cuts to front line services, including closure of the Port Colborne and Fort Erie ERs. Hudak also raised the salary of Barry Monaghan, who collected $351,000 in salary from the Toronto Central LHIN while also receiving $104,000 in an untendered consulting contract from the Mississauga Halton LHIN.
• Premier McGuinty and Health Minister Deb Matthews defended their record, often repeating they increased health funding by 42 per cent since coming to power. They didn’t acknowledge that much of this additional spending came from increased transfers from the Federal government. Matthews described the attack on Barry Monaghan as a “drive-by smear.”
• NDP Leader Andrea Horwath quoted a release from Hamilton Health Sciences: “Even though we’re recognized as one of the most efficient hospitals in the province, we have been forced to make some changes that will impact patient care… In 2010/11 we will do 1,200 fewer surgical procedures.”
• Premier Dalton McGuinty on reducing wait times: “angiographies down by 63 per cent, that’s 35 days; angioplasties down by 14 days; cataract surgery wait times reduced by 208 days; hip replacements in Ontario down by 195 days; knee replacements down by 263 days; CT scans down by 39 days; cancer surgery is down by 23 days; MRI scans down by 13 days; general surgeries down by 21 days; MRI scans down by 13 days; general surgeries down by 21 days; pediatric surgery is down by 21 days.”
• Weird quote of the week: “She (NDP Leader Andrea Horwath) continues to maintain that we have made cuts to our health care system and to hospitals in particular. That is absolutely wrong. It is without foundation in fact.” – Premier Dalton McGuinty in the face of hundreds of layoffs and cuts in hospitals across Ontario. McGuinty went on to reiterate his investments in health care over the last six years.
• Funny but sad quote of day: “Recent media reports quote members of the Liberal caucus saying that morale over there is lower than a garter snake in a puddle on a backcountry road.” – PC MPP Gerry Martiniuk.