OPSEU Diablogue

Score one for the Windsor community.

After Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) told the Windsor Regional Hospital that it had to transfer thoracic cancer surgeries to London or else, CCO found out the hard way that engaging the community is really important.

CCO backed down this week – the Windsor Regional Hospital being designated a Level 2 thoracic cancer surgery centre, the threatened withdrawal of $800,000 in cancer funding no longer on the table. “Thoracic,” incidentally, refers to the chest area.

Unclear at this point is whether an additional $633,000 that was clawed back from the Windsor Hotel Dieu Grace Hospital will also be restored. In the great Windsor hospital campus swap, those services have since been inherited by WRH.

Everybody played a role in fighting back – a lesson for hospital CEOs across Ontario who feel they have no alternative but to play along with the Ministry’s “transformation agenda.”

Windsor CEO David Musyj went public in his efforts to save the service. NDP MPP Taras Natyshak put up an on-line petition that thousands had signed on to. Even Liberal Cabinet Minister Teresa Piruzza played her role in presenting the community’s case to Health Minister Deb Matthews. Most of all the media are crediting the community for mobilizing so quickly around this issue. That includes a campaign by the Windsor Health Coalition to distribute 40,000 leaflets door-to-door.

The case made by CCO to move the service to London was always a weak one.  They claimed Windsor just did not have the volumes to do this work safely. They were wrong. WRH by volume does qualify by CCO’s own definition as a level 2 facility, a point Musyj made in his letter to Dr. Michael Sherar, CEO and President of CCO.

Arbitrarily, after having designated hospitals in Thunder Bay and Kingston as level 2 facilities, CCO decided to call it a day, leaving the entire Erie St. Clair LHIN without such a centre.

It rather makes you wonder how many of the other so-called “evidence-based” decisions communities have been forced to endure are as equally weak?

Former Health Minister George Smitherman liked the idea of communities being involved with local health planning. While the Local Health Integration Networks leave a lot to be desired in how they operate, Ontarians appear to have bought into the idea that yes, we really should have a say.

Now that the thoracic cancer surgeries have been saved, the Windsor community may want to give thought to the upcoming review of the legislation that governs the Local Health Integration Networks. Whereas the LHIN has the responsibility for local planning, including access to cancer services, it’s not clear what role they played — if any — in this unfolding drama. If they expect the LHINs to work on their behalf, the freshly mobilized Windsor community should be prepared to stick an oar in.

Tomorrow the Ontario Health Coalition is inviting Scarborough and Ajax residents to go on a journey to protect their health care.

Much attention has been paid to the proposed merger between the Scarborough and Rouge Valley hospitals. Less attention has been paid to the fact that even with a merger, the combined mega-hospital will still be looking for $28 million in savings next year and more in subsequent years due an unprecedented base funding freeze on Ontario hospitals. This is on top of $17 million in budget cuts that have already taken place this year at The Scarborough Hospital.

To complicate matters further, the two CEOs describe the impact of a new phased in funding formula as being from negative to neutral.

That’s surprising given Scarborough-Rouge should stand to benefit from such a formula given the significant number of surgeries that take place, the population demographics and the high population growth in the eastern part of their combined catchment area.

It does add to the questions that are being raised about the algorithm of such a formula and whether it adequately takes into consideration the social determinants of health.

The OHC is organizing a rolling day of action that is aimed at the province, not the boards of the hospitals. You can choose to participate in all of it or just the part that’s closer to you.

The group will be visiting MPP offices throughout the day calling upon the Wynne government to properly fund these hospitals.

If you don’t have a vehicle, there will be carpooling between the destinations.

Here’s the schedule:

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