PSLRTA | OPSEU Diablogue

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OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas appears before the Standing Committee on Social Policy this morning in Kingston. The Queen’s Park Committee, made up of MPPs from all three parties, is conducting the review into the Local Health Integration Networks mandated in the original 2006 legislation. OPSEU is asking that the LHINs themselves formally integrate with the Ministry of Health and that “integration” proposals undergo a much more rigorous process, including detailed public disclosure. The full presentation is below:

The Ontario Public Service Employees Union represents more than 130,000 members. About a third work of those members work in a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, long-term care homes, ambulance, home care, mental health, independent diagnostics, community health centers, public health, and Canadian Blood Services.

We were the first union to sign up members at a Ontario Family Health Team.

We also represent health professionals in the province’s corrections system and Ontario Public Service members at the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

As a result we believe we have a unique 360 degree perspective on health integration.

OPSEU was among the first trade unions to warn of impending issues with the Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).

In 2006 we warned that the LHINs would be used to deflect public criticism from the real decision-makers. That not only came true, but did much to damage the brand of the LHINs.

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OHA asks for capacity planning but attacks rights of transferred workers

Posted on January 27, 2014 | 1 comment

The Ontario Hospital Association must be finally feeling the pinch of fiscal restraint and so-called “funding reforms” that have worked against their bottom line for at least the past four years.

The OHA is asking that the government begin doing capacity planning – forecasting the specific need for a full range of specific health services. That not only includes forecasting the need for hospital services and beds (including types of beds), but also includes (but is not restricted to) a provincial needs assessment for long term care, assisted living, home care, primary care, and mental health services.

The ask was part of a rare Saturday press release, itself a follow-up to the OHA’s presentation to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs last Thursday.

No doubt the OHA sees capacity planning as the first step in getting them out of the stranglehold the province has placed them in with declining real funding. The OHA has seen freezes in base funding for the past two years, and the two years before that funding was restricted to 1.5 per cent – well below what is needed to maintain the status quo.

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