OPSEU Diablogue

Tired of being ignored, Welland city council has formed a committee to respond to changes at the Niagara Health System. “It’s almost like we’ve been phoning the NHS, the LHIN and the province, leaving a message and saying what we think and not getting a response,” Councillor Frank Campion told Niagara This Week. Campion said that while the hospital restructuring decisions were not theirs to make, the issue is a concern for city hall. Councillor David Alexander told the newspaper that a reduction in hospital services makes it more difficult to market the community to potential investors. Despite its highly controversial restructuring plan, the NHS has an operating deficit of more than $18 million and wait times far above provincial benchmarks.

The board of Headwaters Health Care Centre (HHCC) has decided to close down the Shelburne Hospital.  The board approved cuts of $1.8 million based on a freeze in funding come April. Twenty-two chronic care beds will move to Orangeville while four will be eliminated. In addition, HHCC is closing eight acute care beds and one pediatric bed at its Orangeville site. “It’s not about health care, it’s all about money,” Shelburne Mayor Ed Crewson told the Orangeville Banner. Dr. Ron Murphy, the only dissenting board member, said bed reductions would lead to longer wait times and potential clogging of the emergency room. The HHCC budget will now have to go to the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) for final approval. What to do something about it? Go to www.avoidingzero.ca

Cornwall Community Hospital is the latest hospital to get additional funding to offset its deficit. The hospital has received $5 million in new funding to its annual operating budget, reducing its deficit from $8 million to $3 million. According to the Cornwall Standard-Freeholder, there is a plan to save $2.1 million by cutting eight beds and reducing the number of surgeries by 10 per cent. … The Ottawa Citizen reported on Wednesday that the Ottawa Hospital and the Queensway-Carleton Hospital have contracted with a private retirement home to provide 74 temporary beds for elderly alternate level of care (ALC) patients. The Ottawa Hospital will close 28 vacated beds as part of the process.  Retirement homes are not health care facilities. Unregulated, they are only covered under the Landlord-Tenant Act.  Last summer the Office of the Chief Coroner sent a letter to the Ontario Hospital Association cautioning hospitals of such transfers. Investigating the death of an ALC patient that had been placed in an unregulated retirement home, the Chief Coroner wrote “health care professionals should be reminded that frail elderly patients who are totally functionally dependent and have significant care needs are not appropriate for placement in the private care homes.” The Coroner said such patients should remain in a setting that is as resource intense as a licensed long term care home. …  The Ottawa Citizen also reported this week of a new study of occupational strain at four Ottawa hospitals. The study concluded that employees are overworked and suffering “unsustainable” levels of stress in a system that’s already as lean as can be. Written by Carleton University professor Linda Duxbury, the report says stress levels are making it difficult for nurses, doctors and other staff to look after patients properly. Michael Donaldson, president of OPSEU Local 464, told the Citizen You’re trying to meet these timelines identified by the ministry, and they’re on the white board in the ER: Are we up? Are we down? We’re barraged by information about how we’re doing.” The result is a steady rise in staff burnout, higher rates of sick leave, workplace injuries and medical errors. Marlene Rivier, president of Local 479 criticized a controversial absenteeism program that required sick employees to report to the hospital’s health insurer. Those who don’t, risk having their pay docked. “People feel harassed, they feel devalued, they feel they’ve become the object of suspicion,” she said.

Just prior to last November’s Ontario Hospital Association Conference, OHA CEO Tom Closson called for hospitals to be placed under Freedom of Information legislation.

Ontario is the only province that excludes its publicly-funded hospitals from such scrutiny.

Addressing the OHA, newly minted health minister Deborah Matthews saluted Closson for taking the initative.

“The people of Ontario expect both a strong health care system, and fiscal responsibility. And it’s our job to provide both,” she said. “One part of restoring that trust is being transparent and how we’re spending and what we’re doing. It’s about showing Ontarians that we’re achieving and being honest about our shortcomings.”

Matthews said that with Closson’s leadership at the OHA, Ontario will be able to restore trust and regain public confidence in the health system.

Enter the Friends of the Ajax/Pickering Hospital. The Friends are a diverse community-based group that advocates on behalf of its local hospital in West Durham.

In 2008 the Rouge Valley Health System board decided to move all inpatient mental health beds from the Ajax-Pickering Hospital to the Scarborough Centenary Hospital. The plan had been kept under wraps until the Rouge board approved it, and within three days, the Central East LHIN had rubber stamped the move without any community consultation or input.

While the Rouge Valley Board has continually argued that consolidation of mental health beds at Scarborough Centenary was part of their deficit reduction plan, the Friends have always doubted whether there were any costs savings to be had.

Not only did Rouge have to renovate Centenary to accommodate the transfer, but a brand new state-of-the-art psychiatric intensive care unit at Ajax-Pickering would be abandoned as part of the process.

Last year the Friends decided to ask for the information on costs related to the transfer from Rouge Valley. They received a letter back from former Tory cabinet minister Janet Ecker, Chair of Rouge’s Board. In it she said the Board’s finance committee met and considered the Friends request.

“The committee has advised me that RVHS follows financial disclosure practices that are generally consistent with the industry and in compliance with statutory reporting requirements,” Ecker wrote. “Based on the above, the committee has concluded and advised me that disclosure of the highly detailed information requested in your letter would be inconsistent with the hospital’s disclosure practices and those of the hospital industry.”

The Friends have since sent in a Freedom of Information request, and been told the information they seek is unavailable. They are appealing.

If the OHA and the Ministry of Health were serious about this, they would give the Friends the information they seek and make disclosure a priority.

It’s time for the OHA and the Ministry to open up the hospitals to disclosure, not just talk about openness and transparency.