From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Mon Jan 3 17:23:01 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p03MN1AM019676 for ; Mon, 3 Jan 2011 17:23:01 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Mon, 3 Jan 2011 17:23:02 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Mon, 3 Jan 2011 17:23:00 -0500 Thread-Topic: New ideas for an old debate, federal transfer payments & tough decisions Thread-Index: AcurlMdylwX4cZcYQA2efUVvAw1BuQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B295E@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B295EE2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] New ideas for an old debate, federal transfer payments & tough decisions X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 03 Jan 2011 22:23:01 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B295EE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable New ideas for an old debate Toronto Star Tue Dec 28 2010 Page: A22 Section: Editorial When the federal and provincial finance ministers met in Kananaskis, Alta.,= last week, the spotlight was on pensions and how to make sure Canadians ar= e properly looked after in their retirement years. But another issue was al= so on the table, with implications just as profound for Canadians: federal = transfer payments. Ottawa transfers trainloads of cash to the provinces and territories annual= ly - some $57 billion in the coming fiscal year - for a variety of purposes= . Some of the transfers are equalization payments to "have-not" provinces. = Others are grants to all the provinces for health care, welfare and post-se= condary education - areas that fall under provincial jurisdiction but where= Ottawa has agreed to share the costs. The provinces have long complained that there is a "fiscal imbalance" betwe= en the revenues raised by governments, with Ottawa getting the lion's share= , and their expenditures, with the provinces facing the greatest pressure d= ue to rising health-care costs. Accordingly, under a deal negotiated by then prime minister Paul Martin wit= h the premiers back in 2004, the transfers for health care were pegged to i= ncrease by 6 per cent a year - about triple the rate of inflation. That dea= l is due to expire in 2014, however, and the provinces are worried about wh= at happens after that as Ottawa struggles to cope with a huge deficit. In the 1990s, the Liberal government in Ottawa slashed transfers to the pro= vinces in order to balance the federal budget. The current Conservative gov= ernment has promised not to cut transfers, but it has sent out strong signa= ls that future increases will be tied to the inflation rate. For the provin= ces, this effectively means a cut in real terms, as the costs of providing = universal health care are rising faster than inflation, due to new technolo= gies and drugs and an aging population. "Some tough decisions will have to be made by all governments," said federa= l Finance Minister Jim Flaherty in Kananaskis. This sets the stage for a lot of finger-pointing when negotiations begin in= earnest over the next year. Ottawa will argue that the provinces have to d= o more to rein in health-care costs, and the provinces will accuse Ottawa o= f shirking its duty. As an alternative to this counterproductive posturing, some are proposing a= different approach, under which Ottawa would transfer not cash but taxing = authority to the provinces - specifically, the GST. It would be almost an e= ven swap, with the GST expected to bring in $28.8 billion next year while t= he health-care transfer will cost Ottawa $27 billion. But with the tax in t= he hands of the provinces, they could raise their own money for health care= and be accountable to their own voters on how it is spent, rather than poi= nt fingers at Ottawa. Others argue that such a swap would remove Ottawa's leverage to defend medi= care's universality or to seek changes in the delivery of health care. But = that leverage was last exercised in any meaningful way a quarter-century ag= o. The 2004 Martin deal came with strings attached, but they were mostly th= ings the provinces were going to do anyway, such as reduce wait times. As for maintaining universality, the real check on the provinces is not Ott= awa but their own voters. That's why even arch-conservatives like Mike Harr= is and Ralph Klein stopped well short of introducing two-tier medicare: the= y knew it was a third-rail issue. Another idea on the table that would maintain a significant role for Ottawa= in health care is a national pharmacare program, uploading responsibility = for prescription drugs from the provinces. These are ideas worth considering as Ottawa and the provinces head into ano= ther round of negotiations over transfer payments. =A9 2010 Torstar Corporation Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B295EE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

New idea= s for an old debate

 

Toronto Star
Tue Dec 28 2010 Page: A22
Section: Editorial

When the federal and = provincial finance ministers met in Kananaskis, Alta., last week, the spotl= ight was on pensions and how to make sure Canadians are properly looked aft= er in their retirement years. But another issue was also on the table, with= implications just as profound for Canadians: federal transfer payments.

Ottawa transfers trainloads of cash to the provinces and t= erritories annually - some $57 billion in the coming fiscal year - for a va= riety of purposes. Some of the transfers are equalization payments to "= ;have-not" provinces. Others are grants to all the provinces for health care, welfare and post-s= econdary education - areas that fall under provincial jurisdiction but wher= e Ottawa has agreed to share the costs.

The provinces ha= ve long complained that there is a "fiscal imbalance" between the= revenues raised by governments, with Ottawa getting the lion's share, and = their expenditures, with the provinces facing the greatest pressure due to = rising health-care costs. =

Accordingly, under a deal negotiated by then prime minis= ter Paul Martin with the premiers back in 2004, the transfers for health care were pegged to increase= by 6 per cent a year - about triple the rate of inflation. That deal is du= e to expire in 2014, however, and the provinces are worried about what happ= ens after that as Ottawa struggles to cope with a huge deficit. =

In the 1990s, the Liberal government in Ottawa slashed transfers to= the provinces in order to balance the federal budget. The current Conserva= tive government has promised not to cut transfers, but it has sent out stro= ng signals that future increases will be tied to the inflation rate. For th= e provinces, this effectively means a cut in real terms, as the costs of pr= oviding universal health c= are are rising faster than inflation, due to new technologies and drugs and= an aging population.

"Some tough decisions will ha= ve to be made by all governments," said federal Finance Minister Jim F= laherty in Kananaskis.

This sets the stage for a lot of = finger-pointing when negotiations begin in earnest over the next year. Otta= wa will argue that the provinces have to do more to rein in health-care costs, and the provinces wil= l accuse Ottawa of shirking its duty.

As an alternative = to this counterproductive posturing, some are proposing a different approac= h, under which Ottawa would transfer not cash but taxing authority to the p= rovinces - specifically, the GST. It would be almost an even swap, with the= GST expected to bring in $28.8 billion next year while the health-care transfer will cost Ottawa $2= 7 billion. But with the tax in the hands of the provinces, they could raise= their own money for health care and be accountable to their own voters on how it is spent, rather th= an point fingers at Ottawa.

Others argue that such a swa= p would remove Ottawa's leverage to defend medicare's universality or to seek changes in the delivery= of health care. But that = leverage was last exercised in any meaningful way a quarter-century ago. Th= e 2004 Martin deal came with strings attached, but they were mostly things = the provinces were going to do anyway, such as reduce wait times.

As for maintaining universality, the real check on the provinces = is not Ottawa but their own voters. That's why even arch-conservatives like= Mike Harris and Ralph Klein stopped well short of introducing two-tier medicare: they knew it was a third-rail issue.

Another idea on the table that would maintain a significant role= for Ottawa in health care= is a national pharmacare program, uploading responsibility for prescriptio= n drugs from the provinces.

These are ideas worth consid= ering as Ottawa and the provinces head into another round of negotiations o= ver transfer payments.

=A9 2010 Torstar Corporation=

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evalua= tion and Health & Safety Branch/

Service de la recherche, = de l’=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian = Union of Public Employees/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(= 613) 237-1590, x 248

 <= /o:p>

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B295EE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Tue Jan 4 11:00:23 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p04G0NTu014609 for ; Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:00:23 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:00:23 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:00:21 -0500 Thread-Topic: First showdown: GOP House to vote to repeal health care law before Obama's State of the Union Thread-Index: AcusKH2kzIbkb7FPQXSd6Xp/HxLNtg== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AA5@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AA5E2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] First showdown: GOP House to vote to repeal health care law before Obama's State of the Union X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:00:23 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AA5E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable First showdown: GOP House to vote to repeal health care law before Obama's = State of the Union Canadian Press Mon Jan 3 2011 Section: Foreign general news Byline: BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR WASHINGTON _ Eager to show who's now in charge, the House's new Republican = majority plans to vote to repeal President Barack Obama's landmark health c= are overhaul before he even shows up in their chamber to give his State of = the Union address. Dramatic as that early showdown promises to be _ the vote will be Jan. 12, = Republicans said Monday _ it will be just the first in a series of struggle= s expected to play out in the next few months. Obama returns Tuesday from h= is holiday vacation, fresh off lame-duck legislative victories late last ye= ar, and Republicans will be sworn in Wednesday, primed to challenge him aft= er gaining House control in last fall's elections. Full repeal of the health care law is still a long shot. The House vote wou= ld be just the first, easiest step. But House Republicans vow they will fol= low up with dozens of attempts to hack away at what they derisively call ``= Obamacare.'' The strategy is not risk-free for the Republicans, who won't have a replace= ment plan of their own ready by the time of the repeal vote. But they say t= here's no time to lose. Senate Democratic leaders are sending their own ``you-don't-scare-me'' mess= age. In a letter Monday to House Speaker-to-be John Boehner, they served no= tice that they'll block any repeal, arguing it would kill popular provision= s such as improved prescription coverage for Medicare. Beyond the early health care vote, emboldened Republicans are straining to = challenge the president's spending priorities, setting up likely conflicts = over the budget and the country's debt ceiling. Those votes will be early t= ests of how the president will manoeuvr with a divided Congress, as both he= and Republicans look ahead to the next elections. Most likely, both parties will carry the main issues of the health care deb= ate into the 2012 campaign, when Obama is expected to seek a second term ag= ainst a Republican challenger, and House and Senate control will be up for = grabs again. ``It's not going to be easy; it's going to be a long, hard slog,'' said Rep= . Steve King, R-Iowa, an early leader in the health care repeal drive. The = quick thumbs-down vote by the House will have ``tremendous utility and valu= e,'' King said, but it may take electing a Republican president in Obama's = place to accomplish the overall goal. All the while, the Obama administration intends to keep putting into place = the law's framework for covering more than 30 million uninsured people. Ult= imately, Obama still has his veto pen, and Republicans aren't anywhere clos= e to the two-thirds majorities they would need to override ``Repeal and replace'' worked as a campaign slogan to motivate voters conce= rned about the growing reach of government under Obama. But a single-minded= focus on repeal could backfire as a Republican governing strategy. Polls s= how that some parts of the law are popular, and many Americans would have w= anted even bigger changes. Look for Republicans to try to deny money for the government to carry out t= he law. They'll also attempt to strip out sections of it, such as a new lon= g-term care program. And they'll move to strengthen restrictions on funding= for abortions. It's far from clear that they'll be able to prevail in those efforts either= . There's talk that an effort to deny funding could escalate to the point o= f a possible government shutdown, and no one seems eager for that. ``I don't think the health issues will cause anything dire in the way of a = government shutdown,'' said economist Robert Reischauer, president of the U= rban Institute think-tank . ``There are other things on the agenda besides = health care, namely broader budget issues that have to be dealt with.'' The two parties may be able to get a deal on some limited fixes, like repea= ling an income tax reporting requirement that small business is calling a p= aperwork nightmare. At the White House, spokesman Reid Cherlin said Obama would have no qualms = about delivering his State of the Union speech to lawmakers who've just rep= udiated his signature accomplishment, one that Democrats compare with the e= stablishment of Social Security and Medicare. The president ``feels pretty = confident about defending the health care law,'' Cherlin said. Senate Democrats agree. In Monday's letter to Boehner, Majority Leader Reid= and top lieutenants said repeal would undermine improvements already on th= e books, such as deep discounts on brand-name drugs for Medicare recipients= who have fallen into a coverage gap called the ``doughnut hole.'' ``This proposal deserves a chance to work,'' the Democratic leaders said. `= `It is too important to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan missi= on to repeal health care.'' The law would gradually close the coverage gap. Democrats are preparing other counterattacks. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., said Monday he will try to force the House to vote= separately on the Medicare drug benefits and other popular provisions, inc= luding one that allows adult children to stay on their parents' coverage un= til they turn 26. That could put Republicans in an awkward bind. Other supporters of the health care law have launched a ``drop it or stop i= t'' campaign, challenging Republicans who vote to repeal the overhaul to al= so give up the government-funded health insurance provided to members of Co= ngress. ``It's hypocrisy, their willingness to take health care from the U.S. Congr= ess, while they're denying it to their constituents,'' said Ethan Rome, exe= cutive director of Health Care for America NOW, a coalition of the law's ba= ckers. Republicans say that's nonsense: Lawmakers are only accepting the same empl= oyer-sponsored health care coverage available to other federal workers. They may be more vulnerable on another score. The House vote will be to sim= ply repeal the health care law. The ``replace'' part of the GOP slogan will= be delegated to several committees, charged with developing an alternative= as the year goes on. That can be a laborious process, one that produced pl= enty of disagreements and embarrassments for Democrats when they were in co= ntrol. It's a risk worth taking, says Rep. King. ``I do not believe that you can l= eave any of Obamacare in the law,'' he said. ``To pick and choose would sta= rt endless squabbles. If there are components of Obamacare that have merit,= they can be reintroduced as part of a replacement process.'' Finally, there's a wild card: the courts. Challenges to the constitutionali= ty of the health care law are working their way toward the Supreme Court. O= pponents say Congress overstepped its authority by requiring most Americans= to carry health insurance, effective in 2014. The case may take a couple o= f years, and it could change everything. Copyright =A9 2011 The Canadian Press Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AA5E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

First sh= owdown: GOP House to vote to repeal health care law before Obama's State of= the Union

Canadian Press
Mon Jan 3= 2011
Section: Foreign general news
Byline: BY RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDI= VAR

WASHINGTON _ Eager to show who's now in charge, the Ho= use's new Republican majority plans to vote to repeal President Barack Obam= a's landmark health care overhaul before he even shows up in their chamber = to give his State of the Union address.

Dramatic as that= early showdown promises to be _ the vote will be Jan. 12, Republicans said= Monday _ it will be just the first in a series of struggles expected to pl= ay out in the next few months. Obama returns Tuesday from his holiday vacat= ion, fresh off lame-duck legislative victories late last year, and Republic= ans will be sworn in Wednesday, primed to challenge him after gaining House= control in last fall's elections.

Full repeal of the he= alth care law is still a long shot. The House vote would be just the first,= easiest step. But House Republicans vow they will follow up with dozens of= attempts to hack away at what they derisively call ``Obamacare.''

The strategy is not risk-free for the Republicans, who won't hav= e a replacement plan of their own ready by the time of the repeal vote. But= they say there's no time to lose.

Senate Democratic lea= ders are sending their own ``you-don't-scare-me'' message. In a letter Mond= ay to House Speaker-to-be John Boehner, they served notice that they'll blo= ck any repeal, arguing it would kill popular provisions such as improved pr= escription coverage for Medicare.

Beyond the early heal= th care vote, emboldened Republicans are straining to challenge the preside= nt's spending priorities, setting up likely conflicts over the budget and t= he country's debt ceiling. Those votes will be early tests of how the presi= dent will manoeuvr with a divided Congress, as both he and Republicans look= ahead to the next elections.

Most likely, both parties = will carry the main issues of the health care debate into the 2012 campaign= , when Obama is expected to seek a second term against a Republican challen= ger, and House and Senate control will be up for grabs again.

``It's not going to be easy; it's going to be a long, hard slog,'' sa= id Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, an early leader in the health care repeal drive= . The quick thumbs-down vote by the House will have ``tremendous utility an= d value,'' King said, but it may take electing a Republican president in Ob= ama's place to accomplish the overall goal.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>All the whi= le, the Obama administration intends to keep putting into place the law's f= ramework for covering more than 30 million uninsured people. Ultimately, Ob= ama still has his veto pen, and Republicans aren't anywhere close to the tw= o-thirds majorities they would need to override

``Repeal= and replace'' worked as a campaign slogan to motivate voters concerned abo= ut the growing reach of government under Obama. But a single-minded focus o= n repeal could backfire as a Republican governing strategy. Polls show that= some parts of the law are popular, and many Americans would have wanted ev= en bigger changes.

Look for Republicans to try to deny m= oney for the government to carry out the law. They'll also attempt to strip= out sections of it, such as a new lo= ng-term care program. And they'll move to strengthen restriction= s on funding for abortions.

It's far from clear that the= y'll be able to prevail in those efforts either. There's talk that an effor= t to deny funding could escalate to the point of a possible government shut= down, and no one seems eager for that.

``I don't think t= he health issues will cause anything dire in the way of a government shutdo= wn,'' said economist Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute th= ink-tank . ``There are other things on the agenda besides health care, name= ly broader budget issues that have to be dealt with.''

T= he two parties may be able to get a deal on some limited fixes, like repeal= ing an income tax reporting requirement that small business is calling a pa= perwork nightmare.

At the White House, spokesman Reid Ch= erlin said Obama would have no qualms about delivering his State of the Uni= on speech to lawmakers who've just repudiated his signature accomplishment,= one that Democrats compare with the establishment of Social Security and M= edicare. The president ``feels pretty confident about defending the health = care law,'' Cherlin said.

Senate Democrats agree. In Mo= nday's letter to Boehner, Majority Leader Reid and top lieutenants said rep= eal would undermine improvements already on the books, such as deep discoun= ts on brand-name drugs for Medicare recipients who have fallen into a cover= age gap called the ``doughnut hole.''

``This proposal de= serves a chance to work,'' the Democratic leaders said. ``It is too importa= nt to be treated as collateral damage in a partisan mission to repeal healt= h care.'' The law would gradually close the coverage gap.

Democrats are preparing other counterattacks.

Rep. Pet= er Welch, D-Vt., said Monday he will try to force the House to vote separat= ely on the Medicare drug benefits and other popular provisions, including o= ne that allows adult children to stay on their parents' coverage until they= turn 26. That could put Republicans in an awkward bind. =

Other supporters of the health care law have launched a ``drop it or stop = it'' campaign, challenging Republicans who vote to repeal the overhaul to a= lso give up the government-funded health insurance provided to members of C= ongress.

``It's hypocrisy, their willingness to take hea= lth care from the U.S. Congress, while they're denying it to their constitu= ents,'' said Ethan Rome, executive director of Health Care for America NOW,= a coalition of the law's backers.

Republicans say that'= s nonsense: Lawmakers are only accepting the same employer-sponsored health= care coverage available to other federal workers.

They = may be more vulnerable on another score. The House vote will be to simply r= epeal the health care law. The ``replace'' part of the GOP slogan will be d= elegated to several committees, charged with developing an alternative as t= he year goes on. That can be a laborious process, one that produced plenty = of disagreements and embarrassments for Democrats when they were in control= .

It's a risk worth taking, says Rep. King. ``I do not b= elieve that you can leave any of Obamacare in the law,'' he said. ``To pick= and choose would start endless squabbles. If there are components of Obama= care that have merit, they can be reintroduced as part of a replacement pro= cess.''

Finally, there's a wild card: the courts. Challe= nges to the constitutionality of the health care law are working their way = toward the Supreme Court. Opponents say Congress overstepped its authority = by requiring most Americans to carry health insurance, effective in 2014. T= he case may take a couple of years, and it could change everything. =

Copyright =A9 2011 The Canadian Press

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

S= enior Officer/Agente principale

<= span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt'>Research, Job Evaluation and Health & S= afety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation= des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employe= es/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

<= /html>= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AA5E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Tue Jan 4 11:02:59 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p04G2xFq014780 for ; Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:02:59 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:02:59 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Tue, 4 Jan 2011 11:02:57 -0500 Thread-Topic: Canadians ill-prepared for dementia surge; Survey shows alarming ignorance of risk factors, warning signs Thread-Index: AcusKNrCMrWjpjrsQP2pcjh/96bDnQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AB0@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AB0E2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Canadians ill-prepared for dementia surge; Survey shows alarming ignorance of risk factors, warning signs X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 04 Jan 2011 16:02:59 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AB0E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Canadians ill-prepared for dementia surge; Survey shows alarming ignorance = of risk factors, warning signs The Globe and Mail Tue Jan 4 2011 Page: A1 Section: National News Byline: Andr=E9 Picard PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER Advocates are renewing calls for a national dementia strategy as evidence e= merges that Canadians are woefully uninformed about the basics of the devas= tating condition whose numbers are soaring. "We're not really prepared for what's coming - on an individual or societal= level," said Mary Schulz, director of education at the Alzheimer Society o= f Canada. With more than 500,000 Canadians living with Alzheimer's and related dement= ias, and that number expected to double within 20 years, Ms. Schulz said ed= ucation should be the key component of a strategy. She said it is essential= that everyone know the risk factors, the early warning signs and how demen= tia progresses because dealing with the condition is going to be a daily re= ality for many baby boomers and their offspring. Yet, according to a new survey commissioned by the Alzheimer Society, Canad= ians have surprisingly little knowledge of even the basics of dementia. For example, one in four people surveyed could not name a single symptom of= the degenerative brain illness, while only one in two identified memory lo= ss as a key warning sign. Far fewer respondents could identify other common= symptoms such as disorientation, repetitive behaviour and wandering. "What we see in the survey results is a lot of naivet=E9," Ms. Schulz said.= "You can put in a teacup what a lot of people know." Ms. Schulz said what surprised her most was that those surveyed - 1,006 res= pondents aged 45-65 - appeared unprepared to deal with Alzheimer's even tho= ugh many in that demographic will be called on to be caregivers. In fact, more than one-third of the randomly polled said they have been per= sonally touched by Alzheimer's. But, in the survey questions, that group pr= oved to be only slightly more informed. Joan McCormick said that, in 2005, she noticed her newly retired husband Fr= ank, who liked to putter around their property in Coboconk, Ont., sometimes= had trouble doing routine tasks like cutting the lawn and watering the pla= nts. One day he even tried to enter the house through the window rather tha= n the door, but they laughed it off. Then, during a routine medical visit, the doctor said it would be a good id= ea for Mr. McCormick to undergo testing for dementia. "It was like a stake = in my heart," Mrs. McCormick said. Her own mother had suffered from Alzheimer's, but she wasn't aware of the e= arly warning signs that her husband displayed even though, in retrospect, t= hey seem obvious. Mr. McCormick was only 60 when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer'= s. Generally speaking, the risk of dementia increases with age. The rate of de= mentia doubles every five years after 65 - from about 2.5 per cent among 65= - year-olds to over 40 per cent in 90-year-olds. When prompted, most survey respondents could identify age and genetics as r= isk factors for dementia. But the numbers fell off sharply for other risk f= actors like having suffered a head injury, a history of depression, heart d= isease and high blood pressure. Similarly, those polled - even when prompted - had trouble identifying the = symptoms that occur in the latter stages of dementia beyond difficulty reco= gnizing objects and faces and inability to dress and bathe. Those symptoms = can include loss of mobility, incontinence and hallucinations. Alzheimer's is the most common form of dementia, followed by vascular demen= tia and other conditions like frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body disease an= d Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Aside from education programs, a dementia strategy would include a series o= f policies to promote caring for people in the home, support for caregivers= , expanding long-term care facilities, promoting prevention and early diagn= osis, and increasing investment in research. Dementia cost the Canadian economy about $15-billion last year, and that nu= mber is expected to soar to $153-billion by 2038. =A9 2011 CTVglobemedia Publishing Inc. All Rights Reserved. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AB0E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Canadian= s ill-prepared for dementia surge; Survey shows alarming ignorance of risk = factors, warning signs

The Globe and Ma= il
Tue Jan 4 2011
Page: A1
Section: National News
Byline: A= ndr=E9 Picard

PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER

Ad= vocates are renewing calls for a national dementia strategy as evidence eme= rges that Canadians are woefully uninformed about the basics of the devasta= ting condition whose numbers are soaring.

"We're no= t really prepared for what's coming - on an individual or societal level,&q= uot; said Mary Schulz, director of education at the Alzheimer Society of Ca= nada.

With more than 500,000 Canadians living with Alzhe= imer's and related dementias, and that number expected to double within 20 = years, Ms. Schulz said education should be the key component of a strategy.= She said it is essential that everyone know the risk factors, the early wa= rning signs and how dementia progresses because dealing with the condition = is going to be a daily reality for many baby boomers and their offspring. <= o:p>

Yet, according to a new survey commissioned by the Alzhei= mer Society, Canadians have surprisingly little knowledge of even the basic= s of dementia.

For example, one in four people surveyed = could not name a single symptom of the degenerative brain illness, while on= ly one in two identified memory loss as a key warning sign. Far fewer respo= ndents could identify other common symptoms such as disorientation, repetit= ive behaviour and wandering.

"What we see in the su= rvey results is a lot of naivet=E9," Ms. Schulz said. "You can pu= t in a teacup what a lot of people know."

Ms. Schul= z said what surprised her most was that those surveyed - 1,006 respondents = aged 45-65 - appeared unprepared to deal with Alzheimer's even though many = in that demographic will be called on to be caregivers. <= /p>

= In fact, more than one-third of the randomly polled said they have been per= sonally touched by Alzheimer's. But, in the survey questions, that group pr= oved to be only slightly more informed.

Joan McCormick s= aid that, in 2005, she noticed her newly retired husband Frank, who liked t= o putter around their property in Coboconk, Ont., sometimes had trouble doi= ng routine tasks like cutting the lawn and watering the plants. One day he = even tried to enter the house through the window rather than the door, but = they laughed it off.

Then, during a routine medical visi= t, the doctor said it would be a good idea for Mr. McCormick to undergo tes= ting for dementia. "It was like a stake in my heart," Mrs. McCorm= ick said.

Her own mother had suffered from Alzheimer's, = but she wasn't aware of the early warning signs that her husband displayed = even though, in retrospect, they seem obvious.

Mr. McCor= mick was only 60 when he was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. <= /o:p>

Generally speaking, the risk of dementia increases with age. T= he rate of dementia doubles every five years after 65 - from about 2.5 per = cent among 65- year-olds to over 40 per cent in 90-year-olds.

When prompted, most survey respondents could identify age and genetic= s as risk factors for dementia. But the numbers fell off sharply for other = risk factors like having suffered a head injury, a history of depression, h= eart disease and high blood pressure.

Similarly, those p= olled - even when prompted - had trouble identifying the symptoms that occu= r in the latter stages of dementia beyond difficulty recognizing objects an= d faces and inability to dress and bathe. Those symptoms can include loss o= f mobility, incontinence and hallucinations.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Alzheimer's= is the most common form of dementia, followed by vascular dementia and oth= er conditions like frontotemporal dementia, Lewy body disease and Creutzfel= dt-Jakob disease.

Aside from education programs, a demen= tia strategy would include a series of policies to promote caring for peopl= e in the home, support for= caregivers, expanding long-term care= facilities, promoting prevention and early diagnosis, and incre= asing investment in research.

Dementia cost the Canadian= economy about $15-billion last year, and that number is expected to soar t= o $153-billion by 2038.

=A9 2011 CTVglobemedia Publishing = Inc. All Rights Reserved.

&nbs= p;

 

= Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agente p= rincipale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des emplois et de la = sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP

1375 St. Laur= ent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C0B2AB0E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Thu Jan 6 11:01:36 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p06G1Zj3002329 for ; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 11:01:36 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Thu, 6 Jan 2011 11:01:36 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Thu, 6 Jan 2011 11:01:35 -0500 Thread-Topic: Private clinic use worries Sask. public, union says Thread-Index: AQHLrbr+IUTB7vL7TkKHY96lal/SDw== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5BEA9D23@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-CA X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by lists.cupe.ca id p06G1Zj3002329 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Private clinic use worries Sask. public, union says X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2011 16:01:36 -0000 Private clinic use worries Sask. public, union says The StarPhoenix (Saskatoon) Thu Jan 6 2011 Page: A7 Section: Local Byline: Angela Hall Dateline: REGINA Source: Saskatchewan News Network; Regina Leader-Post A union that opposes the Saskatchewan Party government's decision to use private clinics in a bid to cut wait surgery times says there is public support for its position. "People like public health care," said Canadian Union of Public Employees Saskatchewan president Tom Graham, referring to a Viewpoints Research poll commissioned by CUPE. The survey asked respondents whether they would prefer to see surgical wait times reduced by the government improving services in hospitals or by the government paying for services in private, for-profit surgical clinics. CUPE said 60 per cent opted for the first option and 24 per cent selected the private clinic route. "We can reduce wait times, we believe, through the public system," Graham said. "It's been proven time again that the private sector, nothing wrong with it, but its motivation is money and it's there to make a profit. As a result, you're going to see higher costs." CUPE said the survey included 602 residents and had a margin of error of plus or minus four per cent. Health Minister Don McMorris said the province is also "fully in favour of a publicly funded, public-administered health-care system." But he said components of the system have, for many years, involved the private sector, such as laboratory services, ambulance services in some communities and doctors' offices. Last year, the Saskatoon and Regina health regions each forged an agreement with a private clinic to provide certain types of publicly funded day surgeries. The surgeries are booked by the regions, and individuals can't jump ahead in the queue or pay out-of-pocket for the surgery. "It's really important that people in Saskatchewan realize that there's private delivery within the public system," McMorris said. "When we look at wait times within our province -- and that was the No. 1 issue identified through the patient first review . . . use of small private clinics in Regina and Saskatoon are helping us drive down those wait times." McMorris said the government is also keeping an eye on the cost of using private clinics. "If it costs more, then it will not make sense. That's part of the stipulation, that it's at or below what the public system is costed out at." CUPE is also calling on the province to commit to constructing an outpatient surgery centre in Regina, an idea first pitched by the former NDP government. McMorris said the idea of an ambulatory care centre, which could clear space in acute-care centres, "is not off the radar screen at all." The government has also said 2011 will see a greater use of regional centres for surgeries. From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Fri Jan 7 10:22:06 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p07FM6UT008094 for ; Fri, 7 Jan 2011 10:22:06 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Fri, 7 Jan 2011 10:22:07 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2011 10:21:05 -0500 Thread-Topic: Repeal of US health care law estimated to increase the US deficit by $145 billion from 2012 to 2019 Thread-Index: AQHLrn6AzPn82rBSv0ybEkiwirbMtQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5BEA9D2B@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-CA X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by lists.cupe.ca id p07FM6UT008094 Cc: Pierre Ducasse Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Repeal of US health care law estimated to increase the US deficit by $145 billion from 2012 to 2019 X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2011 15:22:07 -0000 Republicans Are Given a Price Tag for Health Law Repeal, but Reject It The New York Times Fri Jan 7 2011 Page: 15 Section: National Byline: DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and ROBERT PEAR; Michael D. Shear contributed reporting. WASHINGTON -- The nonpartisan budget scorekeepers in Congress said on Thursday that the Republican plan to repeal President Obama's health care law would add $230 billion to federal budget deficits over the next decade, intensifying the first legislative fight of the new session and highlighting the challenge Republicans face in pursuing their agenda. The new House speaker, John A. Boehner, flatly rejected the report, saying it was based largely on chicanery by Democrats. Mr. Boehner's dismissal of the report by the Congressional Budget Office, at his first formal news conference as speaker, was the latest salvo in the battle over the health care law. White House officials on Thursday said they were stepping up efforts to defend the law, with a new rapid-response operation to rebut Republican claims and to deploy supporters to talk about the benefits of the law. But Mr. Boehner's remarks held wider implications, effectively putting him on a war footing with the independent analysts whose calculations generally guide discussions about the projected cost or savings of any legislation. "I do not believe that repealing the job-killing health care law will increase the deficit," he said. "C.B.O. is entitled to their opinion," he said, but he said Democrats had manipulated the rules established for determining the cost of a program under the 1974 Budget Act. "C.B.O. can only provide a score based on the assumptions that are given to them," Mr. Boehner said. "And if you go back and look at the health care bill and the assumptions that were given to them, you see all of the double- counting that went on." But the analysis released by the budget office on Thursday was based on the health care repeal bill that House Republicans introduced on Wednesday. And it highlighted the difficult position that Republicans are in as they try to address what they insist are the top two priorities of voters who elected them in November: cutting the deficit and undoing the health care law. According to the budget office, those goals are contradictory. The budget office estimated that the health care law, including education provisions, would reduce deficits over 10 years by $143 billion. Tax increases and cuts in projected Medicare spending would more than offset the cost of extending health insurance to millions of Americans. The budget office projected that the law would result in even bigger savings beyond 2019. Republicans have said they do not believe that many of the Medicare cuts will ever take hold. They say that government subsidies to help people buy health insurance will prove far costlier than the budget office has predicted, and that the Democrats wrote the law to mask the steep future costs of some provisions, like a new long-term-care insurance program. The budget office did not comment on Mr. Boehner's remarks. Douglas W. Elmendorf, its director, has frequently said his office applies the longstanding budget rules. He says it uses its own professional expertise, as well as consulting with outside experts, to derive its projections, which represent the "middle of the distribution of likely outcomes." Mr. Elmendorf has warned that Congress may find it difficult to follow through with parts of the health care law, particularly the cuts to Medicare. The law's cost would rise if the cuts were not enacted. In the report on Thursday, Mr. Elmendorf, a former Clinton administration official appointed in 2008 when Democrats controlled both chambers of Congress, said that a preliminary analysis showed that repealing the law would increase federal budget deficits by a total of $145 billion from 2012 to 2019 and by $230 billion between 2012 and 2021. Moreover, he said, if the law is repealed, 32 million fewer people will have health insurance in 2019, compared with estimates of coverage under the existing law. As a result, he said, the number of uninsured would be 54 million, rather 23 million, in 2019. At Mr. Boehner's news conference, reporters peppered him with questions about repealing the law -- including the cost analysis and a plan by Republicans not to allow amendments on the repeal measure even though the party had promised to maintain a more open legislative process. "Well, listen, I promised a more open process," Mr. Boehner said. "I didn't promise that every single bill was going to be an open bill." Mr. Boehner grew testy when a reporter noted that Democrats who controlled the Senate were unlikely to bring up the repeal measure, let alone support it, and that Mr. Obama could veto it. "Don't you think it's a waste of time?" Mr. Boehner was asked. "No, I do not," he said, raising his voice. "I believe it's our responsibility to do what we said we were going to do. And I think it's pretty clear to the American people that the best health care system in the world is going to go down the drain if we don't act." In their own report on Thursday, intended to illustrate how the law would lead to job losses, Republican leaders put the cost of the health care law "when fully implemented" at $2.6 trillion and said it would "add $701 billion to the deficit in its first 10 years." © 2011 by the New York Times Company From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Mon Jan 10 15:45:08 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0AKj8Fq003912 for ; Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:45:08 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:45:08 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 15:45:06 -0500 Thread-Topic: Privatization is not a quick fix for the health system Thread-Index: AcuxB0OVQRUm5hOOTwyFk+Sh7WVeeQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A13BE@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A13BEE2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Privatization is not a quick fix for the health system X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 10 Jan 2011 20:45:08 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A13BEE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Privatization is not a quick fix for the health system Published On Fri Jan 7 2011 * Thestar.com Sharon Sholzberg-Gray The Fraser Institute has recently called for a five-year suspension of the enforcement of the Canada Health Act, claiming that this = would permit more "experimentation" with cost sharing and privatization, wh= ich would be a solution to access issues and sustainability of the health s= ystem. Cost sharing is a euphemism for double-dipping by physicians and use= r fees that lead to queue-jumping. Private delivery of health services using public funds is not precluded by = the Canada Health Act, so those who think that, contrary to the evidence, p= rivate delivery would create savings, cannot claim that the act is a barrie= r to private delivery. However, most of the experience in Europe and the Un= ited States is that private hospitals and clinics engage in cherry-picking = while the sickest, most complex patients are in the public or not-for-profi= t system - or are heavily subsidized by the public purse. The federal health minister has rightly rejected the Fraser Institute's req= uest, noting that "we expect the provinces and territories to abide by the = act." However, the federal government does not appear to have the inclinati= on to monitor compliance with the principles of the Canada Health Act as a = condition for receiving federal money. How would suspension of the Canada Health Act help make health-care spendin= g more "sustainable"? Actually, the act requires coverage of medically nece= ssary hospital and physician care only. This represents 42.6 per cent of Ca= nadian health expenditures. The fact is that the problems in the health sys= tem are caused primarily by the lack of access to services not covered by t= he Canada Health Act. Over and over again, the "experts," including the Ont= ario auditor general, have noted that the emergency backlog problem and the= lack of hospital beds for treatment and surgery are caused by insufficient= services provided outside of hospitals, specifically home care and long-te= rm care, which are not Canada Health Act services. Patients waiting for discharge from Ontario hospitals account for 16 per ce= nt of patient days. The Canada Health Act does not require that these patie= nts receive home care or long-term care funded in whole or in part by the p= ublic purse. The barrier is that these patients cannot afford to pay for th= eir own home and long-term care and prescription drugs. So how would suspen= ding the Canada Health Act solve this issue? What about health expenditures and health system sustainability? Health car= e represented an average of 39.2 per cent of provincial and territorial pro= gram spending in 2009, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Infor= mation= . However, according to John Wright, CIHI's CEO, "although health-care spen= ding has been on the rise for the past 10 years, the share of provincial bu= dgets devoted to health care appears to have stabilized overall, though the= situation may vary by province." This contrasts with the Fraser Institute's prediction that in six out of 10= provinces, government expenditures on health care are projected to consume= 50 per cent of provincial revenues by 2034. Its solution is private paymen= ts, co-payments and private insurance options for already covered hospital = and physician services. This would mean transferring a larger health expend= iture burden to private businesses and other employers that now provide ins= urance for prescription drugs and other health costs not publicly insured. The loss of a single-payer system for hospital and physician services and t= he pressure to cover them privately with duplicate insurance under the guis= e of quicker access to these services would make businesses less competitiv= e in a difficult economy, at a time when more and more jobs are being trans= ferred overseas. Everywhere in this country there are best practices and public solutions th= at can be emulated. Health providers together with the support of forward-l= ooking government policies - yes, there are some - are finding ways to solv= e access and sustainability issues. The problem is that some people are loo= king for a simple quick fix (more privatization, get rid of the Canada Heal= th Act) when there are multiple solutions. The list is long and some examples are: better access to home care; continu= ing care services and prescription drugs; a wait times approach that addres= ses both quantity and appropriateness (make sure that people receive physio= therapy services rather than surgery as required); an emphasis on quality; = a focus on chronic care management and keeping people well thus obviating t= he need for more and more interventions; integrated and patient-centred hea= lth services; an electronic health record as an enabling tool, and an evide= nce-based approach to everything we do. It is not enough merely to call for more private expenditures. We need to f= ind ways to control health costs and get better value for money instead of = looking for ways to shift the costs from the wealthy to the sick. So let's = get on with it. Sharon Sholzberg-Gray is a health-policy adviser and served for 10 years as= CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A13BEE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Privatization is not a quick fix for the health system

<= span class=3Dts-labelpublished3>Published On Fri Jan 7 2011

  • Thestar.com

Sharon Sholzberg-Gray

The Fraser Institute has recently called fo= r a five-year suspension= of the enforcement of the Canada Health Act, claiming that this would = permit more “experimentation” with cost sharing and privatizati= on, which would be a solution to access issues and sustainability of the he= alth system. Cost sharing is a euphemism for double-dipping by physicians a= nd user fees that lead to queue-jumping.

Private delivery of health services using public funds is not pr= ecluded by the Canada Health Act, so those who think that, contrary to the = evidence, private delivery would create savings, cannot claim that the act = is a barrier to private delivery. However, most of the experience in Europe= and the United States is that private hospitals and clinics engage in cher= ry-picking while the sickest, most complex patients are in the public or no= t-for-profit system — or are heavily subsidized by the public purse.<= o:p>

The federal health minister ha= s rightly rejected the Fraser Institute’s request, noting that “= ;we expect the provinces and territories to abide by the act.” Howeve= r, the federal government does not appear to have the inclination to monito= r compliance with the principles of the Canada Health Act as a condition fo= r receiving federal money.

Ho= w would suspension of the Canada Health Act help make health-care spending = more “sustainable”? Actually, the act requires coverage of medi= cally necessary hospital and physician care only. This represents 42.6 per = cent of Canadian health expenditures. The fact is that the problems in the = health system are caused primarily by the lack of access to services not co= vered by the Canada Health Act. Over and over again, the “experts,= 221; including the Ontario auditor general, have noted that the emergency b= acklog problem and the lack of hospital beds for treatment and surgery are = caused by insufficient services provided outside of hospitals, specifically= home care and long-term care, which are not Canada Health Act services.

Patients waiting for discharge f= rom Ontario hospitals account for 16 per cent of patient days. The Canada H= ealth Act does not require that these patients receive home care or long-te= rm care funded in whole or in part by the public purse. The barrier is that= these patients cannot afford to pay for their own home and long-term care = and prescription drugs. So how would suspending the Canada Health Act solve= this issue?

What about health= expenditures and health system sustainability? Health care represented an = average of 39.2 per cent of provincial and territorial program spending in = 2009, according to the Canadian Institute for Health= Information. However, according to John Wright, CIHI’s CEO, R= 20;although health-care spending has been on the rise for the past 10 years= , the share of provincial budgets devoted to health care appears to have st= abilized overall, though the situation may vary by province.”

This contrasts with the Fraser Instit= ute’s prediction that in six out of 10 provinces, government expendit= ures on health care are projected to consume 50 per cent of provincial reve= nues by 2034. Its solution is private payments, co-payments and private ins= urance options for already covered hospital and physician services. This wo= uld mean transferring a larger health expenditure burden to private busines= ses and other employers that now provide insurance for prescription drugs a= nd other health costs not publicly insured.

The loss of a single-payer system for hospital and physicia= n services and the pressure to cover them privately with duplicate insuranc= e under the guise of quicker access to these services would make businesses= less competitive in a difficult economy, at a time when more and more jobs= are being transferred overseas.

Everywhere in this country there are best practices and public solutions= that can be emulated. Health providers together with the support of forwar= d-looking government policies — yes, there are some — are findi= ng ways to solve access and sustainability issues. The problem is that some= people are looking for a simple quick fix (more privatization, get rid of = the Canada Health Act) when there are multiple solutions.=

The list is long and some examples are: better = access to home care; continuing care services and prescription drugs; a wai= t times approach that addresses both quantity and appropriateness (make sur= e that people receive physiotherapy services rather than surgery as require= d); an emphasis on quality; a focus on chronic care management and keeping = people well thus obviating the need for more and more interventions; integr= ated and patient-centred health services; an electronic health record as an= enabling tool, and an evidence-based approach to everything we do.

It is not enough merely to call for m= ore private expenditures. We need to find ways to control health costs and = get better value for money instead of looking for ways to shift the costs f= rom the wealthy to the sick. So let’s get on with it.

Sharon Sholzberg-Gray is a health-policy adviser and served for 10 years as = CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association.=

 

<= o:p> 

J= ennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation= and Health & Safety Branch/

= Service de la recherche, de l= ’=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Unio= n of Public Employees/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7<= /o:p>

(613)= 237-1590, x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A13BEE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Tue Jan 11 11:36:41 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0BGafTW006447 for ; Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:36:41 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:36:41 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:36:40 -0500 Thread-Topic: Pilot project shows effectiveness of putting front-line hospital staff in charge of infection control Thread-Index: AcuxrbkfZs6oQ09hQ5SkU8T+dpNZkw== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CA@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: yes X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_"; type="multipart/alternative" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Pilot project shows effectiveness of putting front-line hospital staff in charge of infection control X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:36:41 -0000 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_" --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [cid:image001.gif@01CBB183.D04499E0] Stepping up the fighta gainst superbugs; Pilot project shows effectiveness = of putting front-line hospital staff in charge of infection control The Globe and Mail Tue Jan 11 2011 Page: A3 Section: National News Byline: Caroline Alphonso Dateline: TORONTO TORONTO -- They are nasty drug-resistant bacteria that haunt hospital hallw= ays, infecting thousands and killing an estimated 12,000 Canadians annually= , and now a new initiative aims to put the squeeze on superbugs. What started as a pilot project at five hospitals about two years ago expan= ded Monday to another 30. The bug-fighting approach places the onus on fron= t-line staff, not infection-control doctors, to come up with practical stra= tegies for their particular floors to reduce the spread of hospital- acquir= ed infections. "We've been trying to control these things for 40 years now, and the rates = keep going up. It will just keep getting worse and worse," said Michael Gar= dam, who leads the initiative and is the medical director of infection prev= ention and control at the University Health Network. "[With this program,] = they own it now. They're doing it." Over the next few months, and perhaps even a year, the 30 hospitals that ha= ve signed on to the superbug initiative will develop tactics for specific w= ards that take aim at Clostridium difficile (C. difficile), methicillin- re= sistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and a host of other superbugs that kil= l at least as many people in Canada annually as breast cancer and car accid= ents combined. More than 200,000 patients suffer from hospital-acquired infections each ye= ar, a consequence of three factors: overprescribing of antibiotics that hav= e helped create drug-resistant bugs; old and overcrowded hospitals; and hea= lth- care workers not following basic hand hygiene. An outbreak of C. diffi= cile at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital in Burlington, Ont., in 2006 and 200= 7 led to the deaths of 91 people. Infection-control experts in hospitals find that messages around controllin= g infection rarely stick with front-line staff. Dr. Gardam said his thought= s on prevention used to involve placing more gel dispensers in wards or edu= cating health-care workers about hygiene. But the pilot project involving t= hree Ontario hospitals and two in British Columbia opened his eyes to the c= hanges that happen by empowering hospital workers. Those working on the superbug project at Toronto East General Hospital, for= example, put green tags on IV poles to indicate they've been disinfected (= they're analyzing the effectiveness of that initiative). At Vancouver Gener= al Hospital, staff on a particular floor carry hand sanitizer to clean pati= ents' hands before they receive meal trays. And at the long-term continuing care unit at Trillium Health Centre's west = Toronto site, don't be surprised if you hear one staff member calling anoth= er Nurse Jackson - a code word used to address poor infection control. Project leaders say they've noticed the number of superbug infections decre= ase as a direct result of nurses and hospital staff being involved. "They all of a sudden realize that their units are in a mess, that they're = chaotic, they're disorganized," said Katie Procter, quality leader at the B= C Patient Safety and Quality Council. "So, then they start looking and seei= ng things that are right in front of their eyes that they can change." Patients are often taken aback by infections after what may seem like a rou= tine hospital visit. In a conference call involving the 30 hospitals Monday= , patient Mavis Churchill described how she developed a postoperative MRSA = infection at a Toronto-area hospital. "I never want to put people through t= hat pain again," she said. Dr. Gardam cautions that the hospital-specific strategies will not halt the= spread of superbugs, but hopefully reduce the number of cases. "Right now,= in most of our facilities, the spread of these things is kind of a free-fo= r-all," he said. "We can do way better than what we're doing." *** NEW APPROACHES DISINFECTION TAGS At Toronto East General Hospital, green tags indicate which IV poles have b= een disinfected. COAT HOOKS In the general surgery unit at Toronto General Hospital, hooks were put so = doctors could hang up their white coats and don and doff protective gear wh= en visiting patients in isolation - and patients' families now have a place= to hang their coats and bags so they don't spread infection. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable = --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: image/gif; name="image001.gif" Content-Description: image001.gif Content-Disposition: inline; filename="image001.gif"; size=2784; creation-date="Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:36:41 GMT"; modification-date="Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:36:41 GMT" Content-ID: Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 R0lGODlhyAARAPcAABAIEBAQEBgQEBgQGBgYGCEYGCEYISEhISkhISkpKTEpKTEpMTExMTk5OUI5 OUI5QkJCQkpKSlJKSlJKUlJSUlpSUlpSWlpaWmNaWmNjY2tja2tra3Nra3Nrc3Nzc3tzc3t7e4R7 hISEhIyMjJSUlJyUlJycnKWlpa2trbWttbW1tb29vca9vcbGxs7OztbW1t7W1t7e3ufe5+fn5+/n 7+/v7/f39//39//3//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// /////////////////////////////////////////////////////ywAAAAAyAARAAAI/gBHXMgw sGAGghlOHCwIwoYIggMTeliIcOCGGTly2MiY0YYNFRcSHEiQQYWNGAsHeqjBcaONFxsSECAAwQRL Gy4OQlSJ4uYIiBUvXORIdGMNDxdMbNR4oqCHGBlbpCSRkqCHEzGWLs1YA0RFE0UfFjxRFAVBjBpz mKiYcO2FiCY5biBwweyBAA1QeGhAoIUKCjM9vDgJgu+BEzVegGBAIAGJERFEztja8SgBBiNGMDhA 4ISNFhc4Z3hBVOMKBgEonPAg8wLLGi0A0zRBQSYFqDFEQCBwQASJ2glIl+7o4m6DrTEoMA4gwigK xiJegL4bQcTmBM0pa3QBIsBMCCwz/saQyXsF2o4ZCARAQTQGCb4BTsyYMQK+ipsZQRxwYWME5wg5 1JCeCzVscBcJHJlwQQAJQKVWBJex9EJtDqal0WIHtKARChCC1RVnIAw34QENYGTDYgRk0JGBBGyQ wwwe3OVBRn81RloNtQk3XA4kqEeAjjkkx1kCLnBU300gyOTiCxkoqZ14CUCYYUcqMCATA8PNwFiK pa1AgXfC1RhAhRltcFwOIsgEIJpEFnhgggs2mNEJuzXw2l4OboUCYBu4dFQCYJ0IYmkn8oVgVBfM pKENMbaokQm7MYARSAw66AEERe5owwV8EXAoRxF8SddSe7qUJAEzfhZaAGBlmQBg/szJ1QBjBxDa QgIyJUCZl+qFCSuZOUTQEJsBrEkngTEG8KmClWZkAoQM3PRehS7FFIAKFkLqoX4EhEjUDIkSkKkN BSqpEYsu5nACYHJSKqe6EAD57at3UVBUBLN6x14OpV5orkZpEmDncOOZGQB4ATbgAWoHaGfdbgFk mhGvAfiqHrA1eMQmAQB6xBKMMx2KA7PvnhABXuHVMFlHE7ObZw45rRAgt95ytG4AkhJFQgJ4edTo Bjeo9SUEG9UYXEfAEqVCA4UFYMB5wW4gW7T8XmCqTB4ste5MMpf2QgI3i3vDCg2c4MBM4bkEgVfe iUAUxRaPuWNGAa/J0VGcjZBg/gUDHP1ghHNnRMLJJRLaEc2l6UYT1CbwhcBkHBwwgIuMikRWDu5m FXhHHoCAwgQECMDeUhGYMAIEbd/Q1NWORpVB28PdCu4BAjQHAggp7EYA1DEo4MIGCAwAwduwxp00 R3WX5iaqLrTAXZwO0onzCSqoIO9Gmh38JFeIEyXCf5TRydtgHXBGAQqL5bVUjQeYUL3Ew9nQwAov YDBTujncUDpKnB3wAgoWYN2MxJOeAAzwbQmogW4C8IAaMGAFK4iAAH5EFNrgoD4BOECFvAQmGv0q cMkjimV4M5IDHIBvCYCBsyCUQZF8iij+0Z7hLjQoGKonAlrhFwQG4D8bRK5v/pEhAAW6hrkFkfAA BxyOCxJYOQEwwAY4yEjp1AWhAVzgBAH0V+teNJctpqVKNojgAAhggmh5aYzwowCCUMA3MnIEbh68 GAjVpLxkiSAGMYDBCCjQt+hFygV4PM9W/CMwaZGABCZQiqC6xTKH8CwC4ZkT6jToQ870KQYxcSPm 2LWCQG6FMoPDIwh2YwANBW2KR2HYBSogwI7MoIA1s9lxXkm7BLioBRVQVEdscIAUxGAF6SEABnIQ RThuUo4t8R4dRWggZcGpWX8bWFo+mQMM5swGCpFJwz7ESAuJgC/SFBwEBLCAjJVvchlBQaL2U0QG AelJNoCACRNQAMAMwG1S/mwVaEI3Ki3i7wXhupzOiFZNvggAWy5IVABkVjQSIgACPMtZDowpppcl bpl384B6lmUBAbzrWYB71Ahc4ix2kWYjHMqgR7qnlgsIpDFkGoFtNBK51qHEOwgyGlRQKoJIZuQF PVTZBgxQLNK1Ck18GQAFBLi+BflvOCBYag5Y8KWG5YBJBBjAvnKwgT55hASgIwC2Jioq43Hlisrk mPJYpDdnQU+SheQKQSgDUPWM1QYc4g25unciCOyzL5Wx1glwwCjJpUtA3gmR0YTDKApkrIJPJGZB PSqcKWpkdgTI4on+VU3UXWBHG8jARmagAZIQUD2XcyAKgvaSC0wwa2Tt/pVGKtqyFxKyYxyBEWdI sBTawPRR0LpJbERbmr0EgLh4Pdk2uwdQohmsORrZJ9VsgK6N1JUA7FFnpTySHBwWRShaqZEbbWDZ jZhMiFczoEb4F5wnCaUj/knBZZsZqBVosCWNQhivxOVB72iujJfbSN1yuDy9bcS3fnsWygDGAPxx ZETYNa9y98qzENmABBBYagugdaOFHQAF1XKSQ/gCySLyRnOns5tGgGphuXrns/KrmUc2wACrrdRJ MGrAYSx0twwvBTQmKvC5CJA2Hk2ySHAr2q9OkoEDMNQFW7uMCVawkRhAaiYXMAkwGTaC/zWJNwOh AGeS2JEW7OYAF7jUzEz8B1KBZaA2aC5aA3AmAjgr5UWQugsDMiDPFEFlBTSeCQXeLJqWbFjKHstr Y04wAt6AgD8ZYUGNbTADOt0FzZuJAJV5DLMueqAFRhHPlYWIgu+1KFMuWJh6PKACVTPnBSoIdAAG omPATvSQuCYBiK+aaxJ4BgW9boEJep1rDcWvBmuBAAQyMAICvYDYuO4apffYAGGdNEjQPsFg0gnt QxIxBy3AtU0CNOxuM/RRvHVPr0/AnxxyxAW5JqJ1u31IUN+a3iRowQnoXYOAAAA7 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CAE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Tue Jan 11 11:39:16 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0BGdG1r006682 for ; Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:39:16 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:39:16 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 11:39:15 -0500 Thread-Topic: Lower rates of acquired infection seen with private ICU rooms: Montreal study Thread-Index: AcuxrhVhEmwZ6qVRSRa05EPFu1fGMQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CE@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: yes X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CEE2K7CLUSTERcu_"; type="multipart/alternative" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Lower rates of acquired infection seen with private ICU rooms: Montreal study X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:39:16 -0000 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CEE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CEE2K7CLUSTERcu_" --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CEE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [cid:image001.gif@01CBB184.2C8675C0] Lower rates of acquired infection seen with private ICU rooms: Montreal stu= dy Canadian Press Mon Jan 10 2011 Section: Lifestyles Byline: BY ANNE-MARIE TOBIN TORONTO _ Converting intensive care units with shared rooms to all private = rooms in hospitals can help reduce the transmission of serious infections l= ike MRSA and C. difficile, a new study suggests. The study, published Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine, compared = the acquisition of infection in two hospitals in Montreal, including one fa= cility that switched entirely to single rooms in its ICU in 2002. Hospital infections cause significant death and illness, and add to the cos= t of caring for patients in hospital, said one of the authors, Dana Teltsch= , a PhD candidate at McGill University. ``Private rooms are believed to decrease the rate of acquisition of infecti= on, but previous studies that looked at it were reaching conflicting result= s and also most of them focused on just a few bacteria, mostly MRSA,'' she = explained. This comparison study found a reduction for 12 bacteria that could have bee= n affected by the room privatization, Teltsch said. The rate of acquired infection for three bacteria of concern _ methicillin-= resistant Staphylococcus aureus, C. difficile and vancomycin-resistant Ente= rococcus species, or VRE _ fell by an adjusted rate of 54 per cent after ro= oms were privatized. Both hospitals are McGill University Health Centre facilities, they serve t= he same population and have the same policies of infection control and the = same practices, Teltsch said. The main difference is that the ICU at Montreal General Hospital reopened w= ith private rooms in 2002, while the ICU at Royal Victoria Hospital remaine= d unchanged. Infection rates were compared for a total of 19,343 ICU admiss= ions between 2000 and 2005. The authors hypothesize that private rooms enable better practice of hygien= e. For example, the private rooms come with a sink in each room and there w= ouldn't be shared equipment. Another co-author, Dr. Peter Goldberg, director of the adult ICU at Royal V= ictoria Hospital, said when the ICU was built in the 1980s and early '90s, = the idea was that from a patient safety point of view, patients should be s= een and observed directly by nurses. ``One of the ways to cut down on nursing needs would be to have patients in= one big room like spokes on a wheel, the hub of which would be a nursing s= tation,'' he said. ``So if a nurse is at break, there are other nurses who = could observe the patient in direct visual contact.'' Since then, he said, infections and transmission of superbugs have become m= ore of an issue. His facility is moving to a new site in a few years that will have single r= ooms for all patients. ``We have to make sure that we have some visibility of those patients,'' Go= ldberg said, noting more nurses, assistant nurses or orderlies may be requi= red. In terms of the physical building, he said there are discussions about wind= ows that can change their opaqueness, rather than using curtains that are u= sually cloth and can transmit organisms. ``So we're trying to have windows that change their opaqueness depending on= a lever that you turn, so that you can have a clear visibility when a nurs= e is gone on break and one of her or his colleagues have to see the patient= ,'' he said. ``Whereas when patients are being turned, or patients are being cleaned or = patient wounds are going to be changed, obviously you don't want to see thr= ough windows.'' Teltsch said the study findings could be useful for planners who want to co= mpare the cost of building private rooms and the savings that come from hav= ing private rooms. But Goldberg says the point of the article isn't to show that money can be = saved but rather to show that potential infections can be decreased. There might be greater construction costs and personnel costs for supervisi= on of private rooms, he noted, while costs for antibiotics might be reduced= . Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C1A15CEE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

 

Lower rates of acquired infection seen with pri= vate ICU rooms: Montreal study

Canadian= Press
Mon Jan 10 2011
Section: Lifestyles
Byline: BY ANNE-MARI= E TOBIN

TORONTO _ Converting intensive care units with sha= red rooms to all private rooms in hospitals can help reduce the transmissio= n of serious infections like MRSA and C. difficile, a new study suggests. <= o:p>

The study, published Monday in the Archives of Internal M= edicine, compared the acquisition of infection in two hospitals in Montreal= , including one facility that switched entirely to single rooms in its ICU = in 2002.

Hospital infections caus= e significant death and illness, and add to the cost of caring for patients= in hospital, said one of = the authors, Dana Teltsch, a PhD candidate at McGill University.

``Private rooms are believed to decrease the rate of acquisition o= f infection, but previous studies that looked at it were reaching conflicti= ng results and also most of them focused on just a few bacteria, mostly MRS= A,'' she explained.

This comparison study found a reduct= ion for 12 bacteria that could have been affected by the room privatization, Teltsch said.

The rate of acquired infection for three bacteria of concern _ met= hicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, C. difficile and vancomycin-resis= tant Enterococcus species, or VRE _ fell by an adjusted rate of 54 per cent= after rooms were privatized.

Both hospitals are McGill University Health Centre facilities, they serve the= same population and have the same policies of infection control and the sa= me practices, Teltsch said.

The main difference is that = the ICU at Montreal General Hospital<= /span> reopened with private rooms in 2002, while the ICU at Royal Vict= oria Hospital remained unc= hanged. Infection rates were compared for a total of 19,343 ICU admissions = between 2000 and 2005.

The authors hypothesize that priv= ate rooms enable better practice of hygiene. For example, the private rooms= come with a sink in each room and there wouldn't be shared equipment.

Another co-author, Dr. Peter Goldberg, director of the adult= ICU at Royal Victoria Hospital, said when the ICU was built in the 1980s and early '90s, the idea wa= s that from a patient safety point of view, patients should be seen and obs= erved directly by nurses.

``One of the ways to cut down= on nursing needs would be to have patients in one big room like spokes on = a wheel, the hub of which would be a nursing station,'' he said. ``So if a = nurse is at break, there are other nurses who could observe the patient in = direct visual contact.''

Since then, he said, infectio= ns and transmission of superbugs have become more of an issue. <= /span>

His facility is moving to a new site in a few years that will have s= ingle rooms for all patients.

``We have to make sure tha= t we have some visibility of those patients,'' Goldberg said, noting more n= urses, assistant nurses or orderlies may be required.

In= terms of the physical building, he said there are discussions about window= s that can change their opaqueness, rather than using curtains that are usu= ally cloth and can transmit organisms.

``So we're trying= to have windows that change their opaqueness depending on a lever that you= turn, so that you can have a clear visibility when a nurse is gone on brea= k and one of her or his colleagues have to see the patient,'' he said.

``Whereas when patients are being turned, or patients are be= ing cleaned or patient wounds are going to be changed, obviously you don't = want to see through windows.''

Teltsch said the study fi= ndings could be useful for planners who want to compare the cost of buildin= g private rooms and the savings that come from having private rooms. <= /o:p>

But Goldberg says the point of the article isn't to show that = money can be saved but rather to show that potential infections can be decr= eased.

There might be greater construction costs and per= sonnel costs for supervision of private rooms, he noted, while costs for an= tibiotics might be reduced.

=  

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agen= te principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/=

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des emplois et de= la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP=

1375 St. L= aurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

= (613) 237-1590, x 248

 

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List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 15:52:17 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209933E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Ombudsman probes transfers of patients by private companies Toronto Star Wed Jan 12 2011 Page: A10 Section: News Byline: Rob Ferguson Toronto Star Ontario's ombudsman is launching an investigation into the private industry= of transporting non-emergency patients after complaints some have been dro= pped from stretchers, among other concerns. "These are very serious allegations and important health issues," Ombudsman= Andr=E9 Marin told the Star on Tuesday after announcing the 90-day probe. It will examine complaints from customers and industry "whistleblowers" tha= t include patients being carried in ambulance-style vehicles that have brok= en down, are not properly cleaned to minimize infection risk and with staff= that are not properly trained if patients run into medical difficulties en= route, Marin added. "The allegations are that it's a bit of a free-for-all," he added. There are as many as 500,000 non-emergency patient transfers a year between= hospitals, medical institutions, nursing homes and other facilities, said = Marin. He wants to determine if Ontario's health and transportation ministries are= ensuring that "adequate measures are in place to protect the public" in un= regulated vehicles that resemble ambulances but do not always have the same= equipment. "We have received dozens of complaints from upset patients, their families = and from whistleblowers within the medical transportation industry who feel= that patient safety is being compromised and that the government's respons= e to these issues has been inadequate," Marin said in a statement. Health Minister Deb Matthews said she welcomes the investigation so that th= e government can work with Marin to share information "so we can continue t= o make improvements." Concerns about patient transfers were the subject of a CBC Radio documentar= y in 2009. Marin's office said victims of poor treatment include a Scarborough doctor = with lung and bone cancer whose family said was dropped twice while being t= ransferred from one hospital to another, a woman from Ingersoll who said he= r mother choked to death in 2005 while being transported, and a Toronto wom= an whose young son was struggling for breath while being taken to a hospita= l but went unaided until he got proper care at Toronto East General. The industry expanded in the mid-1990s after the government of former Progr= essive Conservative premier Mike Harris changed regulations so that hospita= ls could save money by using private medical transfers to transport patient= s in stable condition, said New Democrat health critic France G=E9linas. She charged that problems have developed in the industry after the privatiz= ation because some companies are cutting corners to boost their profits. Marin invited anyone with concerns to call his office at 1-800-263-1830 or = fill out an online complaint form at www.ombudsman.on.ca. =A9 2011 Torstar Corporation Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209933E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Ombudsma= n probes transfers of patients by private companies

Toronto Star
Wed Jan 12 2011
Page: A10
Section: Ne= ws
Byline: Rob Ferguson Toronto Star

Ontario's ombudsm= an is launching an investigation into the private industry of transporting = non-emergency patients after complaints some have been dropped from stretch= ers, among other concerns.

"These are very serious = allegations and important health issues," Ombudsman Andr=E9 Marin told the Star on Tuesday after= announcing the 90-day probe.

It will examine complaints= from customers and industry "whistleblowers" that include patien= ts being carried in ambulance-style vehicles that have broken down, are not= properly cleaned to minimize infection risk and with staff that are not pr= operly trained if patients run into medical difficulties en route, Marin ad= ded.

"The allegations are that it's a bit of a free= -for-all," he added.

There are as many as 500,000 = non-emergency patient transfers a year between hospitals, medical instituti= ons, nursing homes and other facilities, said Marin.

=

He = wants to determine if Ontario's healt= h and transportation ministries are ensuring that "adequate= measures are in place to protect the public" in unregulated vehicles = that resemble ambulances but do not always have the same equipment.

"We have received dozens of complaints from upset patients= , their families and from whistleblowers within the medical transportation = industry who feel that patient safety is being compromised and that the gov= ernment's response to these issues has been inadequate," Marin said in= a statement.

Health Minister Deb= Matthews said she welcomes the investigation so that the government can wo= rk with Marin to share information "so we can continue to make improve= ments."

Concerns about patient transfers were the s= ubject of a CBC Radio documentary in 2009.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Marin's off= ice said victims of poor treatment include a Scarborough doctor with lung a= nd bone cancer whose family said was dropped twice while being transferred = from one hospital to anoth= er, a woman from Ingersoll who said her mother choked to death in 2005 whil= e being transported, and a Toronto woman whose young son was struggling for= breath while being taken to a hospit= al but went unaided until he got proper care at Toronto East Gen= eral.

The industry expanded in the mid-1990s after the g= overnment of former Progressive Conservative premier Mike Harris changed re= gulations so that hospitals could save money by using private medical trans= fers to transport patients in stable condition, said New Democrat health critic France G=E9linas.

She charged that problems have developed in the industry af= ter the privatization beca= use some companies are cutting corners to boost their profits. <= /span>

Marin invited anyone with concerns to call his office at 1-800-263-1= 830 or fill out an online complaint form at www.ombudsman.on.ca. <= /span>

=A9 2011 Torstar Corporation

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Office= r/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Bran= ch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des emplo= is et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

= Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP

13= 75 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209933E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Thu Jan 13 10:47:23 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0DFlNX5030329 for ; Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:47:23 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:47:24 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 10:47:22 -0500 Thread-Topic: Public health-care solutions pay dividends; Delisted services, private facilities undermining key B.C. advantages Thread-Index: AcuzOSqzxpHvKXikTnefWWLJF2ifIg== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209C9D@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: yes X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209C9DE2K7CLUSTERcu_"; type="multipart/alternative" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Public health-care solutions pay dividends; Delisted services, private facilities undermining key B.C. advantages X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 15:47:23 -0000 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209C9DE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209C9DE2K7CLUSTERcu_" --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209C9DE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [cid:image001.gif@01CBB30F.41D68410] Public health-care solutions pay dividends; Delisted services, private faci= lities undermining key B.C. advantages Times Colonist (Victoria) Thu Jan 13 2011 Page: A11 Section: Comment Byline: Adrian Dix Source: Special to Times Colonist British Columbia's economic assets are often seen in terms of geography -- = its natural resources, proximity to markets in Asia and extraordinary natur= al beauty. But according to international research, B.C. is a better choice for enterp= rise than Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angles and other commercial centres, = in part because of its public health care system. Vancouver and Prince George occupy the top spots in KPMG's biannual Competi= tive Alternatives Survey, which ranks cities according to the cost advantag= e they provide companies. Our "competitive advantage" is less now than a de= cade ago, but still significant. Vancouver and Prince George place No. 1 and 2 for the Pacific region, while= Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco rank 8 to 11. KPMG arriv= ed at these rankings in part because public non-profit health care is a gre= at deal for the private sector, as employers save considerably by not havin= g to pay for most medical benefits. Our public health-care system thus is a key asset B.C. should leverage to d= iversify its economic base. For example, knowledge-based industries face higher labour costs because of= the scientific and technical expertise of their workforce. Companies in fi= elds like biomedical research and digital media need to provide health care= insurance to recruit and retain skilled labour. A provincial strategy targeting industries should underscore that in B.C. f= irms save on these costs. Sector-specific studies reiterate this -- an anal= ysis by IBM-PLI, a global consultancy firm, concluded that cities like Vanc= ouver offer digital media firms a significant advantage thanks to the publi= c health insurance plan. Yet in the past decade, it has been B.C.'s chief rivals such as Ontario tha= t have capitalized on medicare. Ontario's economic development agency highl= ights how the province's health care system reduces operating costs. Accord= ing to Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and a Nobel Prize-winning eco= nomist, Toyota's decision to select Ontario over other North American locat= ions was based in large part because of public health care. In contrast, the B.C government has been diminishing our province's competi= tive advantage by undermining public health care. It has adopted a "don't a= sk, don't tell" policy on private clinics illegally charging patients to ea= rn a profit, alleged violations of the Medicare Protection Act that increas= e the overall cost of health care in B.C. They have delisted services and s= een private health care costs -- often paid by employers and employees thro= ugh health plans -- increase dramatically as compared to increase in public= health care costs. Even with its current challenges, "socialized medicine" proves to be far mo= re cost-efficient and reliable and provides better quality care than privat= e, for-profit health care. On average, the U.S. spends two-and-a-half times= more per person for health care than other advanced countries, with profit= s to private insurance managers representing 20 per cent of total costs. Arnold Reiman, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine, recent= ly wrote that "because of its overhead, as well as the expense of billing a= nd collecting it imposes on doctors and hospitals, the investor-owned for-p= rofit insurance industry probably adds at least $150 [billion to] $200 bill= ion to the annual cost of providing health coverage to the American populat= ion." A coherent economic development strategy for B.C. would capitalize and stre= ngthen, not diminish, the competitive advantage public health care affords = us. The same public solutions that can reduce wait times, lower drug costs,= improve patient outcomes and increase cost efficiency in our health care s= ystem also make B.C. a more attractive choice for private firms. But the focus and energy required to establish the long-term care beds and = network of specialized, efficient non-profit surgical clinics that would re= duce and stabilize wait times, to set up nurse practitioner clinics to lowe= r hospitalization rates and expand the Therapeutic Initiative's independent= assessment of drug treatments to protect patients and taxpayers has been d= iverted by the government's questioning of a single-payer health system. It accomplishes the opposite, weakening public health care at the expense o= f patients, health-care workers, social justice and even the business commu= nity. Public health care remains a great deal for B.C. patients and businesses. I= t combines, as health economist Steven Lewis has said, "social justice with= administrative efficiency." Adrian Dix is an MLA and the NDP health critic. 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X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209CB8E2K7CLUSTERcu_"; type="multipart/alternative" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Regina--CT scan waitlist expected to shrink [due to contract with private for-profit provider] X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 16:01:17 -0000 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209CB8E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209CB8E2K7CLUSTERcu_" --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209CB8E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [cid:image001.gif@01CBB311.33098930] CT scan waitlist expected to shrink The Leader-Post (Regina) Thu Jan 13 2011 Page: A1 / Front Section: News Byline: Pamela Cowan Source: Leader-Post By this fall, health officials expect the wait for CT scans in the Regina Q= u'Appelle Health Region will drop, which in turn could shorten surgical wai= t times. The region has awarded a 32-month contract to Radiology Associates of Regin= a (RAR) to provide computed tomography (CT) services beginning May 1 and en= ding Dec. 31, 2013. Over the term of the contract, RAR is to provide approximately 42,500 CT sc= ans. The procedures will include head, neck, abdominal, chest, pelvic and spinal= CT scans and will supplement services provided by the region's three CT sc= anners, located at the Regina General and Pasqua hospitals. Despite those scanners operating at maximum capacity -- 16 hours per day, s= even days a week -- 737 patients were waiting for a CT scan as of Oct. 31. Last year, the region performed almost 74,000 CT procedures. That volume of= service will be maintained in the hospitals. Half of the patients requiring elective CT scans had the procedure done wit= hin 34 days and 90 per cent received services in less than 300 days. All em= ergent patients received CT scans within 24 hours. The goal of adding a fourth scanner is so no patient waits longer than 90 d= ays for an elective CT scan, said Jim Slater, the region's executive direct= or of diagnostic imaging. "We believe that this additional capacity is going to achieve that in the s= hort term," he said. "I can't promise that it's going to meet that target, = but we do regular monitoring and assessment of this." Wait times won't decrease overnight, but Slater expects a significant decre= ase in waits for elective CT scans by September. He said the region consistently has more requests for CTs than can be perfo= rmed in a given month. When asked why the region doesn't purchase a fourth CT scanner, Slater said= one of the most limiting factors is the lack of space for another machine. Reducing the wait for diagnostic tests ultimately will reduce the surgical = waitlist because surgeons will have results quicker. RAR will provide the services for about $2.6 million less than it would cos= t the region to provide the additional procedures. "Running a small office is a lot cheaper than running a hospital," said Dr.= Andrea Gourgaris from RAR. She said RAR has provided radiological services to Regina and area resident= s for years. "In our private clinic on Parliament Avenue, we've already been running out= patient ultrasound, X-ray, mammography and barium studies -- so this is rea= lly just a continuation of what we're already doing," Gourgaris said. The clinic will do CT scans Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. "We will be employing six people to run the scanner as well as the radiolog= ist," Gourgaris said. The clinic purchased a General Electric 64-slice CT scanner -- the same typ= e of equipment used at the hospitals -- so the radiologist will be familiar= with the software and the machine. Gourgaris would not release what RAR paid for the equipment, but she said s= canners typically run between half a million and two million dollars. If CT services are being contracted on a short-term basis, why would a priv= ate business buy the equipment, asked NDP Health critic Judy Junor. "What will they do with it when the contract is over?" she questioned. "The= re doesn't seem to be any evidence to support the need. I've talked to staf= f in Regina that say they walk past these machines that are dark a lot of t= imes. I don't actually believe that this is necessary. I do think that it's= something more philosophical and a direction this government seems bent on= going." At a news conference earlier in the day, Slater dismissed the suggestion th= at the contract was a step towards privatization. "With this third-party contract, we are in compliance with the Canada Healt= h Act --so this is not a private provider," he said. "They are under contra= ct to us as a third party. They are publicly funded and publicly administer= ed. The referrals are sent to them by us and they manage the delivery of th= e service and are accountable to us." Slater said details of the request for proposals, the contract, the costing= framework and the third-party policy framework is posted on the Ministry o= f Health's website. There will be no job losses by region staff as a result of the contract and= it will not affect staffing levels in public facilities. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209CB8E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

CT scan wait= list expected to shrink

The Leader-Post= (Regina)
Thu Jan 13 2011
Page: A1 / Front
Section: News
By= line: Pamela Cowan
Source: Leader-Post

By this fall, h= ealth officials expect the wait for CT scans in the Regina Qu'Appelle Healt= h Region will drop, which in turn could shorten surgical wait times. <= /o:p>

The region has awarded a 32-month contract to Radiology Associ= ates of Regina (RAR) to provide computed tomography (CT) services beginning= May 1 and ending Dec. 31, 2013.

Over the term of the = contract, RAR is to provide approximately 42,500 CT scans.

The procedures will include head, neck, abdominal, chest, pelvic and spi= nal CT scans and will supplement services provided by the region's three CT= scanners, located at the Regina General and Pasqua hospitals. <= /span>

Despite those scanners operating at maximum capacity -- 16 hours per= day, seven days a week -- 737 patients were waiting for a CT scan as of Oc= t. 31.

Last year, the region performed almost 74,000 CT = procedures. That volume of service will be maintained in the hospitals.

Half of the patients requiring elective CT scans had the pr= ocedure done within 34 days and 90 per cent received services in less than = 300 days. All emergent patients received CT scans within 24 hours.

The goal of adding a fourth scanner is so no patient waits longe= r than 90 days for an elective CT scan, said Jim Slater, the region's execu= tive director of diagnostic imaging.

"We believe th= at this additional capacity is going to achieve that in the short term,&quo= t; he said. "I can't promise that it's going to meet that target, but = we do regular monitoring and assessment of this."

W= ait times won't decrease overnight, but Slater expects a significant decrea= se in waits for elective CT scans by September.

He said = the region consistently has more requests for CTs than can be performed in = a given month.

When asked why the region doesn't purchas= e a fourth CT scanner, Slater said one of the most limiting factors is the = lack of space for another machine.

Reducing the wait for= diagnostic tests ultimately will reduce the surgical waitlist because surg= eons will have results quicker.

RAR will provide the ser= vices for about $2.6 million less than it would cost the region to provide = the additional procedures.

"Running a small office = is a lot cheaper than running a hospital," said Dr. Andrea Gourgaris f= rom RAR.

She said RAR has provided radiological services= to Regina and area residents for years.

"In our pr= ivate clinic on Parliament Avenue, we've already been running outpatient ul= trasound, X-ray, mammography and barium studies -- so this is really just a= continuation of what we're already doing," Gourgaris said.

The clinic will do CT scans Monday to Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.=

"We will be employing six people to run the scanne= r as well as the radiologist," Gourgaris said.

<= p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:= auto'>The = clinic purchased a General Electric 64-slice CT scanner -- the same type of= equipment used at the hospitals -- so the radiologist will be familiar wit= h the software and the machine.

Gourgaris would not rele= ase what RAR paid for the equipment, but she said scanners typically run be= tween half a million and two million dollars.

= If CT serv= ices are being contracted on a short-term basis, why would a private busine= ss buy the equipment, asked NDP Health critic Judy Junor.

"What will they do with it when the contract is over?" she ques= tioned. "There doesn't seem to be any evidence to support the need. I'= ve talked to staff in Regina that say they walk past these machines that ar= e dark a lot of times. I don't actually believe that this is necessary. I d= o think that it's something more philosophical and a direction this governm= ent seems bent on going."

At a news conference earl= ier in the day, Slater dismissed the suggestion that the contract was a ste= p towards privatization.

"With this third-party c= ontract, we are in compliance with the Canada Health Act --so this is not a private provider," h= e said. "They are under contract to us as a third party. They are publ= icly funded and publicly administered. The referrals are sent to them by us= and they manage the delivery of the service and are accountable to us.&quo= t;

Slater said details of the request for proposals, the= contract, the costing framework and the third-party policy framework is po= sted on the Ministry of Health's website.

There will be = no job losses by region staff as a result of the contract and it will not a= ffect staffing levels in public facilities.

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

S= enior Officer/Agente principale

<= span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt'>Research, Job Evaluation and Health & S= afety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation= des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employe= es/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

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List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:19:41 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209E0BE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable from http://www.ochu.on.ca/senior_care.html Treat ailing elderly as patients not 'bed blockers' January 07, 2011 (Toronto Star) Michael Hurley Four years ago, my mom - blind, sick from heart disease, but fiercely indep= endent - fell in her apartment. My sister found her unconscious two days la= ter. She spent three weeks in hospital. Her final days of life were spent as a "= bed blocker." This came with a spate of indignities. Fluids weren't pushed,= vital signs weren't taken. Blood work wasn't done. She wasn't toileted and= became incontinent - a complete humiliation for her. She deteriorated rapidly, but there was a steady push on our family to send= her home or to a nursing home. Even though my sister - a nurse - advocated= daily on her behalf, she was neglected in our health-care system. When she slipped out of lucidity and out of consciousness, tests were done = and we were called to see a cardiac surgeon. He told us that my mother had = had two undiagnosed heart attacks while in hospital and now was too weak fo= r surgery. He was very kind and apologetic. She was dead within 36 hours. Like my mother, many elderly patients are acutely ill. But the general assu= mption is that they are wasting precious health-care resources. Since these= patients are often long-lived, and since few families complain in the fog = of their grief, the active discrimination against this age cohort passes un= noticed. Ontario's hospitals are operating over their capacity. Nineteen thousand be= ds have been closed over the last 15 years. In Sudbury, patients sleep in b= room closets. Ours is the most efficient hospital system in Canada - operat= ing with $260 fewer dollars per citizen, with the shortest lengths of stay = and the fewest beds and staff per capita of any province.....(click on abov= e link for entire article). Heather Heather Farrow Health Care Research Assistant Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) National Office 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 hfarrow@cupe.ca www.cupe.ca Fax: 613-237-5508 Tel: 613-237-1590, ext. 320 Cell from Sept. 1 to Nov. 1 2010: 613-552-0858 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209E0BE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

 

from

http://www.ochu.on.ca/senior_care.htm= l

<= span style=3D'font-size:13.5pt;font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Treat= ailing elderly as patients not ‘bed blockers’

January 07, 2011 (Toronto Star)
Michael Hurle= y
Four years ago, my mom — blind, sick from heart disease, but fi= ercely independent — fell in her apartment. My sister found her uncon= scious two days later.
She spent three weeks in hospital. Her final days= of life were spent as a “bed blocker.” This came with a spate = of indignities. Fluids weren’t pushed, vital signs weren’t take= n. Blood work wasn’t done. She wasn’t toileted and became incon= tinent — a complete humiliation for her.
She deteriorated rapidly,= but there was a steady push on our family to send her home or to a nursing= home. Even though my sister — a nurse — advocated daily on her= behalf, she was neglected in our health-care system.
When she slipped o= ut of lucidity and out of consciousness, tests were done and we were called= to see a cardiac surgeon. He told us that my mother had had two undiagnose= d heart attacks while in hospital and now was too weak for surgery. He was = very kind and apologetic. She was dead within 36 hours.
Like my mother, = many elderly patients are acutely ill. But the general assumption is that t= hey are wasting precious health-care resources. Since these patients are of= ten long-lived, and since few families complain in the fog of their grief, = the active discrimination against this age cohort passes unnoticed.
Onta= rio’s hospitals are operating over their capacity. Nineteen thousand = beds have been closed over the last 15 years. In Sudbury, patients sleep in= broom closets. Ours is the most efficient hospital system in Canada —= ; operating with $260 fewer dollars per citizen, with the shortest lengths = of stay and the fewest beds and staff per capita of any province…..(c= lick on above link for entire article).

 

 

Heather

 

Heather Farro= w
Health Care Research Assistant
Canadian Union of Public Emplo= yees (CUPE)
National Office
1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G = 0Z7  
hfarrow@cupe.ca
www.cupe.ca
Fax: 613-237-5508
Tel: = 613-237-1590, ext. 320

Cell from Sept. 1 = to Nov. 1 2010: 613-552-0858

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C209E0BE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Fri Jan 14 12:03:29 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0EH3Tvk011362 for ; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:03:29 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:03:29 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:03:27 -0500 Thread-Topic: Role of PEI physicians to change, official says Thread-Index: Acu0DPYSy4oPqWP8SMem046qrfJXmQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: yes X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_"; type="multipart/alternative" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Role of PEI physicians to change, official says X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:03:29 -0000 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_" --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Role of PEI physicians to change, official says [cid:image001.jpg@01CBB3E3.0D37CD20] Dr. Richard Wedge, executive director of Medical Affairs for Health PEI, to= ld CBC News this week that there may be fewer physicians on the Island in t= he coming years as the province builds up its complement of nurse practitio= ners and other health professionals working in primary care teams. A Hay Group report for the government, released in the fall, suggested that= the number of physicians could drop from 96 currently to as low as 65 by 2= 015 provided that "the introduction of primary care reform, including an in= terdisciplinary model of care, is successful." The first primary care network on the Island was opened last July, and the = government has committed to having five in place. Health Minister Carolyn Bertram has been non-committal about which of the 7= 0 recommendations in the Hay report the government will embrace, but she ha= s rejected the idea of cutting doctors' positions. Dr. Wedge told CBC that the Island is behind other provinces in building th= e number of nurse practitioners. He sees family physicians being less invol= ved in primary care and more in hospitals: in emergency care as well as wor= king as associates in orthopedics, ophthalmology and a number of other area= s. The changes to the physician workforce are part of a wide-ranging initiativ= e to build an integrated health system on the Island. It includes a new mod= el of care which has licensed practical nurses taking over some of the resp= onsibilities of registered nurses - something RNs have resisted, and an iss= ue which Ms. Bertram has taken some heat over in the legislature. Dr. Wedge told CBC that Health PEI will be examining the Hay report in deta= il before making its own recommendations to government. The report can be found at www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/DHW-HayGroup.pdf. HE Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Role of PEI= physicians to change, official says

3D"http://www.healthedition.com/images/title_sepe=

Dr. Ric= hard Wedge, executive director of Medical Affairs for Health PEI, told CBC = News this week that there may be fewer physicians on the Island in the comi= ng years as the province builds up its complement of nurse practitioners an= d other health professionals working in primary care teams.

A Hay Gr= oup report for the government, released in the fall, suggested that the num= ber of physicians could drop from 96 currently to as low as 65 by 2015 prov= ided that “the introduction of primary care reform, including an inte= rdisciplinary model of care, is successful.”

The first primary= care network on the Island was opened last July, and the government has co= mmitted to having five in place.

Health Minister Carolyn Bertram has= been non-committal about which of the 70 recommendations in the Hay report= the government will embrace, but she has rejected the idea of cutting doct= ors’ positions.

Dr. Wedge told CBC that the Island is behind o= ther provinces in building the number of nurse practitioners. He sees famil= y physicians being less involved in primary care and more in hospitals: in = emergency care as well as working as associates in orthopedics, ophthalmolo= gy and a number of other areas.

The changes to the physician workfor= ce are part of a wide-ranging initiative to build an integrated health syst= em on the Island. It includes a new model of care which has licensed practi= cal nurses taking over some of the responsibilities of registered nurses &#= 8212; something RNs have resisted, and an issue which Ms. Bertram has taken= some heat over in the legislature.

Dr. Wedge told CBC that Health P= EI will be examining the Hay report in detail before making its own recomme= ndations to government.

The report can be found at www.gov.pe.ca/photos/origi= nal/DHW-HayGroup.pdf. HE

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside<= /p>

Senior Officer/Age= nte principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des emplois et d= e la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP

1375 St. = Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: image/jpeg; name="image001.jpg" Content-Description: image001.jpg Content-Disposition: inline; filename="image001.jpg"; size=926; creation-date="Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:03:28 GMT"; modification-date="Fri, 14 Jan 2011 12:03:28 GMT" Content-ID: Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64 /9j/4AAQSkZJRgABAgAAZABkAAD/7AARRHVja3kAAQAEAAAASwAA/+4ADkFkb2JlAGTAAAAAAf/b AIQAAwICAgICAwICAwUDAwMFBQQDAwQFBgUFBQUFBggGBwcHBwYICAkKCgoJCAwMDAwMDA4ODg4O EBAQEBAQEBAQEAEDBAQGBgYMCAgMEg4MDhIUEBAQEBQREBAQEBARERAQEBAQEBEQEBAQEBAQEBAQ EBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQEBAQ/8AAEQgACgINAwERAAIRAQMRAf/EAGgAAQEBAQAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAABAgkBAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAABEAABAwMEAwADAQEAAAAAAAAAkQID0hRU0RNT0wESohGh UmHBEQEAAwEBAQEBAAAAAAAAAAAAARFRErHRYaH/2gAMAwEAAhEDEQA/AOqPlzvHn8eGefP++Px/ 3yETcdxuVuoLTcfxOVuoLN1/E5WVAtN2TherKgl/hvScD1ZUC/w3pOB6sqBf4m9JwPVlQL/Dek4H rHUC5w35cd6x1AucN+XHesdYLnDflx5FjrBc4m/LjSLHWC5wuJcaRY6wXOFxLjSLHWC5wuJsWRYq wXOFxNiyLFWC5xLmbFkWKsJc4XM2LIsVYLnC5mxJVirB1OFzNiSrFWDqc8LmbElWLsB1OeF1PiSr F2A6nPEup8SVYuwHU54XU+HKsXYDqc8LqfDlWHsB1OT/AD6XU+HKsPYDqc8+l1PhyrD2A6nPC6nw 5Vh7AdTnn0up8OVYewHU5P8APpdT4cqw9gOpzz6XU+HKsPYDqc8+l1PhyrD2A6nPC6nw5Vh7AdTn n0up8OVYewHU5P8APpdT4cqxdgOpzxbmfElWLsB1OeFzNiSrFWDqc8LmbFlWKsHU4XM2LIsVYLnF uJsWRYqwtzhcS40ix1gucN+XGkWOsFzi78uPIsdYLnDekx3rHUC5xd6TgerKgXOG9JwPVlQL/Ddk 4XqyoF/huv4XqyoLf4u6/icrKgWbj+JytqBZuP4nK2oFm4/jcrdQWu4/jcrdQWbjuNyt1BZuO43f OoLPd3G751BZ7u43fOoLPd3G751BZ7u43fOoLPd3G751BZ7u43fOoLPd3G751BZ7u/jz+tQL7ef5 8/rUB+fP8+f1qFaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAB/9k= --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A0B9E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From hfarrow@cupe.ca Fri Jan 14 13:50:32 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0EIoWFI015810 for ; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:50:32 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:50:32 -0500 From: Heather Farrow To: "healthcare@members.cupe.ca" Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:45:37 -0500 Thread-Topic: Leftwords: Counting the cuts -- Peterborough get's on it Thread-Index: Acu0FbSl6gZW/07fS02tGavitJyMigABYedR Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5BE8BAEC@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> References: <0022152d7c238fdad40499d248fd@google.com> In-Reply-To: <0022152d7c238fdad40499d248fd@google.com> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by lists.cupe.ca id p0EIoWFI015810 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] FW: Leftwords: Counting the cuts -- Peterborough get's on it X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:50:35 -0000 With thanks to CUPE researcher Doug Allan. Congratulations to the Peterborough Health Coalition (Ontario). To subscribe to "Leftwords", click on http://www.ochu.on.ca/leftwords_ochuBlog.php Leftwords: Counting the cuts -- Peterborough get's on it [http://gmodules.com/ig/images/plus_google.gif] ________________________________ Counting the cuts -- Peterborough get's on it Posted: 13 Jan 2011 10:27 AM PST Most citizens of Peterborough and the surrounding area have been concerned for some time that huge staffing cuts at the hospital will erode patient care. Peterborough Health Coalition (PHC) has now opened a secure mailbox in the lobby of City Hall to collect confidential, accurate examples of declining care. The Coalition plans to build a case for improvement. This mail box service was apporved by City Council last August. The collection of information will be the sole responsibility of PHC, and not of the City, and will be kept confidential until the authors specifically agree to release the examples for use by PHC on their behalf. The Coalition hopes that the documentation of declining care will help them build their case for adequate staffing at the local hospital. The media will be kept informed. Roy Brady, Chairperson, Peterborough Health Coalition can be contacted at 705-745-2446. A editorial dealing with this initiative by the Peterborough examiner is here. Kudos to the PHC for this initiative! dallan@cupe.ca [http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Leftwords?d=qj6IDK7rITs] [http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Leftwords?i=2hCAgAIrjG4:GRXjDY5TBaw:-BTjWOF_DHI] [http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Leftwords?i=2hCAgAIrjG4:GRXjDY5TBaw:F7zBnMyn0Lo] [http://feeds.feedburner.com/~ff/Leftwords?i=2hCAgAIrjG4:GRXjDY5TBaw:gIN9vFwOqvQ] You are subscribed to email updates from Leftwords: Defending Public Healthcare To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. Email delivery powered by Google Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Fri Jan 14 17:51:35 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0EMpZa7025565 for ; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:51:35 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:51:36 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 17:51:34 -0500 Thread-Topic: Ontarians ready to pay more to sustain healthcare Thread-Index: Acu0PZgP7Avpo03QQpC6XvFYefgCbg== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A222@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A222E2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Ontarians ready to pay more to sustain healthcare X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2011 22:51:36 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A222E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable http://www.hoopp.com/about/media/releases/2010/1130thinktank.asp Ontarians ready to pay more to sustain healthcare - as long as healthcare w= orkers are supported TORONTO -- The Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) today released th= e results of a public survey about healthcare in Ontario. The survey showed= : =B7 84% rated the quality of healthcare in Ontario as good or excep= tional; in Toronto, 92% of respondents rated healthcare as good or exceptio= nal =B7 Healthcare should be the top priority of the provincial governm= ent. 71% of respondents said healthcare is the most important thing the pro= vincial government has to do - the environment, the deficit and childcare w= ere seen as lower priority =B7 90% believed that reducing number of nurses would really hurt h= ealthcare delivery =B7 61% would pay higher taxes to sustain high quality healthcare "The good news is Ontarians appreciate the excellent healthcare they are re= ceiving," says John Crocker, HOOPP's President and CEO. "The challenge is t= hey want more staff and shorter wait times. Ontarians also want the same hi= gh quality care in the community care setting as they receive in hospitals.= " HOOPP commissioned the survey in advance of sponsoring the HOOPP Think Tank= , a blue-ribbon group of healthcare administrators, union officials, govern= ment representatives, and healthcare practitioners. Among the featured spea= kers was economist Don Drummond. "We feel that those who deliver healthcare have unique perspectives on how = the system we all value can be more efficient," says Crocker. "We hope that= the outcome of our discussions, which we will deliver to the government an= d the media in a few weeks, will focus attention on solutions to keep the s= ystem healthy and effective for all Ontarians." The survey was performed by the Gandalf Group, who polled 1,315 Ontarians f= rom Nov. 2 to Nov. 8, 2010. The results are accurate by +/- 2.7 per cent. H= ere are more details on the survey (800 kB PDF). About HOOPP Created in 1960, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) proudly ser= ves Ontario's hospital and community-based healthcare workers. HOOPP is mad= e up of more than 250,000 members and retireees, as well as over 340 partic= ipating employers. HOOPP invests the assets of its $31 billion Fund, admini= sters the Plan and pays more than $1 billion per year in pension benefits. = The HOOPP defined benefit plan is a formula based benefit that provides mea= ningful retirement income and peace of mind to Ontario healthcare workers. HOOPP is governed by a Board of Trustees with representation from the Ontar= io Hospital Association (OHA) and four unions: the Ontario Nurses' Associat= ion (ONA), the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), the Ontario Publi= c Service Employees' Union (OPSEU), and the Service Employees International= Union (SEIU). The unique governance model provides representation from bot= h employers and unions in support of the long-term interests of the Plan. For further information or to arrange interviews, please contact: Martin Biefer Director, Public Affairs Phone: 416 369-8045 Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A222E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

http://www.hoopp.com/about/media/releases/2010/1130= thinktank.asp

 

Ontarians ready to pay more to s= ustain healthcare – as long as healthcare workers are supported<= /o:p>

TORONTO -- T= he Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) today released the results of= a public survey about healthcare in Ontario. The survey showed:=

=B7       &nb= sp; 84% rated the quality of healthcare in Ontario a= s good or exceptional; in Toronto, 92% of respondents rated healthcare as g= ood or exceptional

=B7  &nbs= p;      Healthcare should b= e the top priority of the provincial government. 71% of respondents said he= althcare is the most important thing the provincial government has to do &#= 8211; the environment, the deficit and childcare were seen as lower priorit= y

=B7     &nb= sp;   90% believed that reducing number of= nurses would really hurt healthcare delivery

=B7         <= /span>61% would pay higher taxes to sustain high quality healthcare<= /o:p>

"The good n= ews is Ontarians appreciate the excellent healthcare they are receiving,&qu= ot; says John Crocker, HOOPP’s President and CEO. "The challenge= is they want more staff and shorter wait times. Ontarians also want the sa= me high quality care in the community care setting as they receive in hospi= tals."

HOOPP commissioned the survey in advance of sponsoring the HOOPP Think Tan= k, a blue-ribbon group of healthcare administrators, union officials, gover= nment representatives, and healthcare practitioners. Among the featured spe= akers was economist Don Drummond.

"We feel that those who deliver healthcare have= unique perspectives on how the system we all value can be more efficient,&= quot; says Crocker. "We hope that the outcome of our discussions, whic= h we will deliver to the government and the media in a few weeks, will focu= s attention on solutions to keep the system healthy and effective for all O= ntarians."

The survey was performed by the Gandalf Group, who polled 1,315 Ontari= ans from Nov. 2 to Nov. 8, 2010. The results are accurate by +/- 2.7 per ce= nt. Here are more= details on the survey (800 kB PDF).

About HOOPP

Created in 1960, the Healthcare of Ontario Pen= sion Plan (HOOPP) proudly serves Ontario’s hospital and community-bas= ed healthcare workers. HOOPP is made up of more than 250,000 members and re= tireees, as well as over 340 participating employers. HOOPP invests the ass= ets of its $31 billion Fund, administers the Plan and pays more than $1 bil= lion per year in pension benefits. The HOOPP defined benefit plan is a form= ula based benefit that provides meaningful retirement income and peace of m= ind to Ontario healthcare workers.

HOOPP is governed by a Board of Trustees with repre= sentation from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and four unions: the = Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA), the Canadian Union of Public Emplo= yees (CUPE), the Ontario Public Service Employees’ Union (OPSEU), and= the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). The unique governance mo= del provides representation from both employers and unions in support of th= e long-term interests of the Plan.

For further information or to arrange interviews, p= lease contact:

Martin Biefer
Director, Public Affairs
Phone: 416 369-8045<= o:p>

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job = Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/

Service de la reche= rche, de l’=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Can= adian Union of Public Employees/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G= 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

&= nbsp;

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C20A222E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Wed Jan 19 11:17:41 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0JGHfSI000764 for ; Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:17:41 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:17:41 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:17:40 -0500 Thread-Topic: 'Concierge' medical services under fire; Annual fee: $975. Health insurance board probes 11 private clinics Thread-Index: Acu39GTHr1yXYZvWRZGkI3dxZu3+wQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F3C@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: yes X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/related; boundary="_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F3CE2K7CLUSTERcu_"; type="multipart/alternative" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] 'Concierge' medical services under fire; Annual fee: $975. Health insurance board probes 11 private clinics X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:17:41 -0000 --_004_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F3CE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F3CE2K7CLUSTERcu_" --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F3CE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable [cid:image001.gif@01CBB7CA.7BEABFD0] 'Concierge' medical services under fire; Annual fee: $975. Health insurance= board probes 11 private clinics Montreal Gazette Wed Jan 19 2011 Page: A6 Section: News Byline: CHARLIE FIDELMAN Source: The Gazette Immediate access to Montreal's top pediatric services might sound like a pa= rent's dream, but it is available here -at a cost of $975 per year, per chi= ld. The fee buys "concierge" health services at Medisys 123, a private clinic i= n downtown Montreal that is under investigation by the Quebec health insura= nce board for allegedly contravening billing regulations. Medisys 123 is the latest of 11 clinics to come under scrutiny in Quebec re= cently. The RAMQ launched its investigation in early January, before federa= l Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh called on federal Health Minister Leo= na Aglukkaq last Friday to look into the matter. Dosanjh said Medisys 123 is billing patients for medically necessary proced= ures, which contravenes the Canada Health Act. For an upfront fee, Medisys gives parents a doctor at their fingertips. Jus= t one phone call will give access to a medical team that will arrange basic= and emergency pediatric care days, evenings and weekends. Marie-France Courtemanche, the point person for enrolment in the concierge = service, said Medisys charges for "integrated" health care that cannot be b= roken down into parts. Fees, however, go to pay for uninsured services such= as phone calls, she explained yesterday. Any face-to-face medical consults= are billed to RAMQ, she added. "We are not doing anything illegal. We are in full compliance with the regu= lations," she said. The Regie de l'assurance maladie du Quebec said it is concerned by the jump= in the number of doctors and clinics in recent years that are trying to fi= nd loopholes to circumvent the law when it comes to billing patients for in= surable services. An annual forfeit or "block fee" paid in advance runs counter to the law, R= AMQ spokesperson Marc Lortie said yesterday: "For them it may be legal, but= we are investigating." More and more clinics are getting creative with their billing, Lortie said,= for example, charging "club" or "block fees," and also for checkups and fa= st access to physicians and laboratory results. "We've never seen so many brought to our attention," said Lortie, noting th= at the jump in hidden and new billings has prompted the RAMQ to send an ope= n letter to Quebec's family and specialty physicians, a "reminder about cha= rging illegal fees." One of the consulting doctors at Medisys, Harley Eisman, also the director = of pediatric emergency at the Montreal Children's Hospital, told The Gazett= e in an email that concierge services help respond to patient needs in a si= tuation where overcrowded hospitals easily become vulnerable to influenza o= utbreaks. "What is clear is the imperative to continue to develop pediatric resources= in the community," he said. Families aren't necessarily looking for a physician for their children, he = said, but "support and prise-en-charge ... 365 days a year." But a membership at Medisys is no guarantee of a "golden key access" to the= Children's ER in case of an emergency, Eisman pointed out, because patient= s are triaged according to the severity of their illness and time of arriva= l. But the company's brochure implies preferential treatment: "Our medical tea= m ... address urgent medical situations as they occur. If we feel that a fa= ce-to-face assessment is required, our pediatric team will welcome you at o= ur facilities where your child will be seen without delay." The Quebec branch of Canadian Doctors for Medicare says extra fees contrave= ne the universality principle of health care, and have asked the provincial= health minister to step in. "It's another way of charging patients for fas= ter access to a physician," Marie-Claude Goulet, head of Medecins Quebecois= pour le regime public, said yesterday. Dr. YvesRobertof theQuebecCollege of Physicians said it's not always clear = what is not insured, and so violations continue to mount. Some physicians try to make up for rising office expenses while others see = a profitable opportunity in gaps of the public health system, he said. Fees to gain access to a doctor should not be tolerated, he said. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F3CE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

'Concierge' = medical services under fire; Annual fee: $975. Health insurance board probe= s 11 private clinics

Montreal Gazette <= br>Wed Jan 19 2011
Page: A6
Section: News
Byline: CHARLIE FIDEL= MAN
Source: The Gazette

Immediate access to Montreal'= s top pediatric services might sound like a parent's dream, but it is avail= able here -at a cost of $975 per year, per child.

The fe= e buys "concierge" health services at Medisys 123, a private clin= ic in downtown Montreal that is under investigation by the Quebec health in= surance board for allegedly contravening billing regulations.

Medisys 123 is the latest of 11 clinics to come under scrutiny in Que= bec recently. The RAMQ launched its investigation in early January, before = federal Liberal health critic Ujjal Dosanjh called on federal Health Minist= er Leona Aglukkaq last Friday to look into the matter.

D= osanjh said Medisys 123 is billing patients for medically necessary procedu= res, which contravenes the Canada Hea= lth Act.

For an upfront fee, Medisys gives pa= rents a doctor at their fingertips. Just one phone call will give access to= a medical team that will arrange basic and emergency pediatric care days, = evenings and weekends.

Marie-France Courtemanche, the po= int person for enrolment in the concierge service, said Medisys charges for= "integrated" health care that cannot be broken down into parts. Fees, however, go to pay f= or uninsured services such as phone calls, she explained yesterday. Any fac= e-to-face medical consults are billed to RAMQ, she added.

"We are not doing anything illegal. We are in full compliance with t= he regulations," she said.

The Regie de l'assurance= maladie du Quebec said it is concerned by the jump in the number of doctor= s and clinics in recent years that are trying to find loopholes to circumve= nt the law when it comes to billing patients for insurable services. <= /o:p>

An annual forfeit or "block fee" paid in advance run= s counter to the law, RAMQ spokesperson Marc Lortie said yesterday: "F= or them it may be legal, but we are investigating." =

More and more clinics are getting creative with their billing, Lortie said= , for example, charging "club" or "block fees," and als= o for checkups and fast access to physicians and laboratory results. <= /o:p>

"We've never seen so many brought to our attention,"= said Lortie, noting that the jump in hidden and new billings has prompted = the RAMQ to send an open letter to Quebec's family and specialty physicians= , a "reminder about charging illegal fees."

On= e of the consulting doctors at Medisys, Harley Eisman, also the director of= pediatric emergency at the Montreal Children's Hospital, told The Gazette = in an email that concierge services help respond to patient needs in a situ= ation where overcrowded hospitals easily become vulnerable to influenza out= breaks.

"What is clear is the imperative to continu= e to develop pediatric resources in the community," he said.

Families aren't necessarily looking for a physician for their chi= ldren, he said, but "support and prise-en-charge ... 365 days a year.&= quot;

But a membership at Medisys is no guarantee of a &= quot;golden key access" to the Children's ER in case of an emergency, = Eisman pointed out, because patients are triaged according to the severity = of their illness and time of arrival.

But the company's = brochure implies preferential treatment: "Our medical team ... address= urgent medical situations as they occur. If we feel that a face-to-face as= sessment is required, our pediatric team will welcome you at our facilities= where your child will be seen without delay."

<= p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:= auto'>The = Quebec branch of Canadian Doctors for Medicare says extra fees contravene the universality principle = of health care, and have a= sked the provincial health minister to step in. "It's another way of c= harging patients for faster access to a physician," Marie-Claude Goule= t, head of Medecins Quebecois pour le regime public, said yesterday. <= /o:p>

Dr. YvesRobertof theQuebecCollege of Physicians said it's not = always clear what is not insured, and so violations continue to mount.

Some physicians try to make up for rising office expenses wh= ile others see a profitable opportunity in gaps of the public health system= , he said.

Fees to gain access to a doctor should not be= tolerated, he said.

 <= /o:p>

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agente prin= cipale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/<= /span>

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des emplois et de la san= t=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP=

1375 St. Laurent = Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

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Acu39a27Ih0oQyDFSwi9RYXAI50a3g== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F55@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F55E2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] 26 states join Obama health care lawsuit in US; announcement made as House debates repeal X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2011 16:26:52 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F55E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable 26 states join Obama health care lawsuit in US; announcement made as House = debates repeal Canadian Press Tue Jan 18 2011 Section: Foreign general news Byline: BY MELISSA NELSON PENSACOLA, Fla. _ Six more states joined a lawsuit filed in the state of Fl= orida against President Obama's historic health care overhaul on Tuesday, m= eaning more than half of the country is challenging the law. The announcement was made as House of Representatives members in Washington= , led by Republicans, debated whether to repeal the law. Repeal of Obama's = signature domestic accomplishment would be symbolic because Democrats contr= ol the Senate and White House. The six additional states, all with Republican attorneys general, joined Fl= orida and 19 others in the legal action, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi= said. ``It sends a strong message that more than half of the states consider the = health care law unconstitutional and are willing to fight it in court,'' sh= e said in a statement. The states claim the health care law is unconstitutional and violates Ameri= cans' rights by forcing them to buy health insurance by 2014 or face penalt= ies. Government attorneys have said the states do not have standing to challenge= the law and want the case dismissed. Lawsuits have been filed elsewhere. A federal judge in Virginia ruled in De= cember that the insurance-purchase mandate was unconstitutional, though two= other federal judges have upheld the requirement. It's expected the Suprem= e Court will ultimately have to resolve the issue. ``It is important to note that two of the three courts that have reviewed t= his law on the merits have found it constitutional, and those decisions _as= well as two others the government prevailed on _ are pending in courts of = appeal. At the same time, trial courts in additional cases have dismissed n= umerous challenges on jurisdictional and other grounds that have not been a= ppealed,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said. Meanwhile, the White House dismissed an expected vote on repealing the law,= saying the Republicans' push was not a serious legislative effort. Democra= ts have said they will block repeal in the Senate. In the Florida case, the states also argue the federal government is violat= ing the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the states without providing m= oney to pay for it. They say the new law gives the state's the impossible c= hoice of accepting the new costs or, as punishment, forfeiting federal heal= th care funding. Florida U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson could rule later this month whethe= r he will grant a summary judgment in favour of the states or the Obama adm= inistration without a trial. Florida's former Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum filed the lawsui= t just minutes after President Barack Obama signed the 10-year, $938 billio= n health care bill into law in March. He chose a court in Pensacola, one of= Florida's most conservative cities. The nation's most influential small bu= siness lobby, the National Federation of Independent Business, also joined = the suit. Joining the coalition in the Florida case were: Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Ohio, = Wisconsin and Wyoming. The other states that are suing are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Geo= rgia, Indiana, Idaho, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, N= orth Dakota, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Wa= shington. Copyright =A9 2011 The Canadian Press Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F55E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

26 state= s join Obama health care lawsuit = in US; announcement made as House debates repeal

<= p class=3DMsoNormal>Canadian Press
Tue Jan 18 2011
Section: Foreign general n= ews
Byline: BY MELISSA NELSON

PENSACOLA, Fla. _ Six mo= re states joined a lawsuit filed in the state of Florida against President = Obama's historic health care overhaul on Tuesday, meaning more than half of the country is challengin= g the law.

The announcement was made as House of Represe= ntatives members in Washington, led by Republicans, debated whether to repe= al the law. Repeal of Obama's signature domestic accomplishment would be sy= mbolic because Democrats control the Senate and White House.

The six additional states, all with Republican attorneys general, join= ed Florida and 19 others in the legal action, Florida Attorney General Pam = Bondi said.

``It sends a strong message that more than h= alf of the states consider the health= care law unconstitutional and are willing to fight it in court,= '' she said in a statement.

The states claim the health care law is unconstitution= al and violates Americans' rights by forcing them to buy health insurance b= y 2014 or face penalties.

Government attorneys have sai= d the states do not have standing to challenge the law and want the case di= smissed.

Lawsuits have been filed elsewhere. A federal j= udge in Virginia ruled in December that the insurance-purchase mandate was = unconstitutional, though two other federal judges have upheld the requireme= nt. It's expected the Supreme Court will ultimately have to resolve the iss= ue.

``It is important to note that two of the three cour= ts that have reviewed this law on the merits have found it constitutional, = and those decisions _as well as two others the government prevailed on _ ar= e pending in courts of appeal. At the same time, trial courts in additional= cases have dismissed numerous challenges on jurisdictional and other groun= ds that have not been appealed,'' Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schm= aler said.

Meanwhile, the White House dismissed an expec= ted vote on repealing the law, saying the Republicans' push was not a serio= us legislative effort. Democrats have said they will block repeal in the Se= nate.

In the Florida case, the states also argue the fed= eral government is violating the Constitution by forcing a mandate on the s= tates without providing money to pay for it. They say the new law gives the= state's the impossible choice of accepting the new costs or, as punishment= , forfeiting federal health care fund= ing.

Florida U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson= could rule later this month whether he will grant a summary judgment in fa= vour of the states or the Obama administration without a trial. =

Florida's former Republican Attorney General Bill McCollum filed th= e lawsuit just minutes after President Barack Obama signed the 10-year, $93= 8 billion health care bill= into law in March. He chose a court in Pensacola, one of Florida's most co= nservative cities. The nation's most influential small business lobby, the = National Federation of Independent Business, also joined the suit.

Joining the coalition in the Florida case were: Iowa, Kansas, Ma= ine, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming.

The other states that= are suing are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Indiana, Idaho,= Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Pennsylv= ania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah and Washington.

Copyright =A9 2011 The Canadian Press

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside<= /o:p>

Senio= r Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safet= y Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des= emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/S= CFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C285F55E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Thu Jan 20 09:43:17 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0KEhH6n006104 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:43:17 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:43:17 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:43:15 -0500 Thread-Topic: Montreal: Private clinics under investigation; Health board launches 11 probes; Public system delays driving patients elsewhere Thread-Index: Acu4sF8HeYJwsviuSzexlM1k9wrGRA== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862B4@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862B4E2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Montreal: Private clinics under investigation; Health board launches 11 probes; Public system delays driving patients elsewhere X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:43:17 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862B4E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Private clinics under investigation; Health board launches 11 probes; Publi= c system delays driving patients elsewhere Montreal Gazette Thu Jan 20 2011 Page: A4 Section: News Byline: CHARLIE FIDELMAN Source: The Gazette Stuck without a family doctor five years ago, Louis-Thomas Pelletier finall= y turned to a private Montreal health clinic and now pays $1,300 a year for= an elite membership. While Pelletier is happy with his express service at Plexo Clinique, adjace= nt to Outremont, the clinic is subject to one of 11 investigations launched= by the Quebec health insurance board into billing contraventions. The Regie de l'assurance du Quebec says that in its 40 years, it has never = seen such a spike in extra fees for health services via various loopholes. Investigations include: -=A6Plexo, where $1,300 a year buys an annual checkup, including a battery = of physical tests, laboratory work, vaccines and followup with a family doc= tor. -=A6Clinique Globale Sante Express in Blainville, which charges nearly $400= for a "checkup" followed by an appointment with a family doctor. -=A6Groupe Sante Physimed in St. Laurent charges $473 for a battery of basi= c tests -blood, urine, heart, lungs and ears -and additional tests are extr= a, followed by a meeting with a physician. -=A6And as of this month, Medisys 123 (owned by Persistence Capital Partner= s, a health services investment corporation) charges $975 per child, per ye= ar, for "concierge" services and an estimated $1,500 a year for adults. What's interesting about Medisys is that Quebec's former health minister Ph= ilippe Couillard negotiated a position with the firm just before quitting p= olitics in 2008. He was still in cabinet when the government approved a set= of approved fees for private health clinics like Medisys, but an investiga= tion by the Quebec lobbying commissioner later cleared Couillard of any mis= conduct. Clinics that refuse to comply with billing laws may face legal action, Regi= e spokesperson Marc Lorti warned yesterday. Pelletier, a busy filmmaker, said he appreciates the fast, efficient and ac= countable service provided at private clinics like Plexo, with an approach = that's unparalleled in the public system: telephone access to a doctor 24/7= , an annual checkup, a battery of tests and same-day results, complete with= computer data charting his health information from year to year. "It would take me a week of running around in the public system to get the = same tests and then they tell you, 'We'll call you if there's anything wron= g,' or 'we lost your tests,' " he said. "I have a doctor. He knows me, he k= nows what worries me about my health -this is what a family doctor is suppo= sed to do - and he tells me what to look after. I feel like I'm talking to = a human being." Rather than argue about billing, health officials should focus on improving= public health so everyone can be privy to good care, Pelletier said: "A ch= eckup is no luxury." Pelletier said he would not consult a private clinic if the public system f= unctioned smoothly. "I get paid by the hour. When I have to wait 10 hours i= n the emergency room, I feel like sending them a bill." He noted that he pays twice for health care -first as a taxpayer (calculate= d at $4,653 per person, per year, based on the percentage of the provincial= budget that goes toward health care) and then Plexo's annual fee. "I'm not paying less taxes because I'm using those services - I'm paying do= uble and I'm aware of that," Pelletier said. "But at least I know what is h= appening with me." Plexo director of marketing Nicole Gruslin said she would not comment while= her organization is under the Regie's investigation. The law is clear about billing infractions, and the problem lies with enfor= cing it, said Yves Robert of the Quebec College of Physicians. The Regie looks at individual cases but its intervention comes after the fa= ct, Robert said. "What's needed is political intervention." cfidelman@montrealgazette.com Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862B4E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Private = clinics under investigation; Health board launches 11 probes; Public system delays driving patients elsewher= e

Montreal Gazette
Thu Jan 20 2011 =
Page: A4
Section: News
Byline: CHARLIE FIDELMAN
Source: The= Gazette

Stuck without a family doctor five years ago, Lou= is-Thomas Pelletier finally turned to a private Montreal health clinic and now pays $1,300 a year for= an elite membership.

While Pelletier is happy with his = express service at Plexo Clinique, adjacent to Outremont, the clinic is sub= ject to one of 11 investigations launched by the Quebec health insurance board into billing contraven= tions.

The Regie de l'assurance du Quebec says that in i= ts 40 years, it has never seen such a spike in extra fees for health services via various loopholes. =

Investigations include:

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>-=A6Plexo, = where $1,300 a year buys an annual checkup, including a battery of physical= tests, laboratory work, vaccines and followup with a family doctor. <= /o:p>

-=A6Clinique Globale Sante Express in Blainville, which charge= s nearly $400 for a "checkup" followed by an appointment with a f= amily doctor.

-=A6Groupe Sante Physimed in St. Laurent c= harges $473 for a battery of basic tests -blood, urine, heart, lungs and ea= rs -and additional tests are extra, followed by a meeting with a physician.=

-=A6And as of this month, Medisys 123 (owned by Persist= ence Capital Partners, a health services investment corporation) charges $975 per child, per year, fo= r "concierge" services and an estimated $1,500 a year for adults.=

What's interesting about Medisys is that Quebec's forme= r health minister Philippe= Couillard negotiated a position with the firm just before quitting politic= s in 2008. He was still in cabinet when the government approved a set of ap= proved fees for private health= clinics like Medisys, but an investigation by the Quebec lobbying comm= issioner later cleared Couillard of any misconduct.

<= p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:= auto'>Clin= ics that refuse to comply with billing laws may face legal action, Regie sp= okesperson Marc Lorti warned yesterday.

Pelletier, a bus= y filmmaker, said he appreciates the fast, efficient and accountable servic= e provided at private clinics like Plexo, with an approach that's unparalle= led in the public system: telephone access to a doctor 24/7, an annual chec= kup, a battery of tests and same-day results, complete with computer data c= harting his health informa= tion from year to year.

"It would take me a week of= running around in the public system to get the same tests and then they te= ll you, 'We'll call you if there's anything wrong,' or 'we lost your tests,= ' " he said. "I have a doctor. He knows me, he knows what worries= me about my health -this = is what a family doctor is supposed to do - and he tells me what to look af= ter. I feel like I'm talking to a human being."

=

Rat= her than argue about billing, health<= /span> officials should focus on improving public health so everyone can be privy to good care, P= elletier said: "A checkup is no luxury."

Pelle= tier said he would not consult a priv= ate clinic if the public system functioned smoothly. "I get= paid by the hour. When I have to wait 10 hours in the emergency room, I fe= el like sending them a bill."

He noted that he pays= twice for health care -fi= rst as a taxpayer (calculated at $4,653 per person, per year, based on the = percentage of the provincial budget that goes toward health care) and then Plexo's annual fee. <= /o:p>

"I'm not paying less taxes because I'm using those servic= es - I'm paying double and I'm aware of that," Pelletier said. "B= ut at least I know what is happening with me."

<= p class=3DMsoNormal style=3D'mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:= auto'>Plex= o director of marketing Nicole Gruslin said she would not comment while her= organization is under the Regie's investigation.

The la= w is clear about billing infractions, and the problem lies with enforcing i= t, said Yves Robert of the Quebec College of Physicians. =

The Regie looks at individual cases but its intervention comes after the f= act, Robert said. "What's needed is political intervention."

cfidelman@montrealgazette.com

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

S= enior Officer/Agente principale

<= span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt'>Research, Job Evaluation and Health & S= afety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation= des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employe= es/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

<= /html>= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862B4E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Thu Jan 20 09:54:47 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0KEslKA007152 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:54:47 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:54:47 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 09:54:46 -0500 Thread-Topic: Cameron Seeks Vast Changes In England's Health Service Thread-Index: Acu4sfpnMw2PXICfThSC7CYsFXCZpw== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862C1@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862C1E2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Cameron Seeks Vast Changes In England's Health Service X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 14:54:47 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862C1E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Cameron Seeks Vast Changes In England's Health Service The New York Times Thu Jan 20 2011 Page: 4 Section: Foreign Byline: SARAH LYALL LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday proposed a radical reor= ganization of England's health care system, introducing legislation that wo= uld hand responsibility for most of the country's health budget to its 42,0= 00 general practitioners and, his political opponents say, open the door to= private competition that could threaten the foundations of socialized care= . Mr. Cameron argues that the bill, said to be the biggest overhaul of the Na= tional Health Service since it was founded in 1948, is essential to increas= e efficiency and allow doctors, patients and localities more control of how= the health budget is spent. Yet the prime minister, who promised during last year's election campaign t= hat he had no radical plans to change the health service, faces formidable = opposition from a wide array of critics. These include the British Medical = Association, members of Mr. Cameron's own Conservative Party, patient advoc= ates, health care specialists, health workers' unions and even many of the = primary care doctors who are supposed to benefit under the proposals. "We feel, and many others feel, that this reform is too much, too complicat= ed and not necessary in terms of organizational change," Dr. Clare Gerada, = chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said in an interv= iew. "Nobody's been able to convince anyone I've spoken to why we're doing = it." The complaints include criticisms that the plan is ill thought out, that it= will prove too costly at a time of budgetary retrenchment and that the com= petition and choice it promises will cause confusion and duplication, and e= ncourage decision-making based on cost rather than quality. In the eyes of = conspiracy-minded Labour politicians, however, the bill is a stalking horse= for the eventual privatization of health care. "My concern, in the long run, is that this is opening up the whole of the N= .H.S., all areas, to competition and private health companies," John Healey= , the Labour health spokesman, told The Daily Telegraph. The bill would allow general practitioners to commission services from "any= willing provider," which the government says would encourage efficiency an= d quality, as providers competed for business. But the N.H.S. Confederation, which represents organizations in the health = service, says this will lead to the closing of some hospitals and a move to= ward a more disjointed system in which private companies pick up the slack.= Already there are signs that American companies are stepping in to provide= consulting and commissioning services. "Forcing commissioners of care to tender contracts to any willing provider,= including N.H.S. providers, voluntary sector organizations and commercial = companies, could destabilize local health economies and fragment care for p= atients," Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association Counc= il -- the group's executive committee -- said in a statement. Other critics said the changes would simply not deliver the results Mr. Cam= eron promised. "The real choice is not between stability and change, but be= tween reforms that are well executed and deliver results for patients, and = reforms that are poorly planned and risk undermining the N.H.S.," Chris Ham= , chief executive of the King's Fund, an independent research group focusin= g on health care, said in a statement. But Mr. Cameron is committed to making "fundamental" changes. "I don't thin= k there is an option of just quietly standing still, staying where we are a= nd putting a bit more money into the N.H.S.," he told BBC Radio this week. Under the government's plan, some $127 billion a year -- about 80 percent o= f the total health care budget -- would be handed directly to the country's= 42,000 general practitioners, who would join together into consortia that = would negotiate to buy treatment from hospitals and specialists. The 151 bo= dies that currently make such spending decisions, known as primary care tru= sts, would be abolished, as would another layer of bureaucracy, 10 regional= groups known as Strategic Health Authorities. In order to help take politics out of the system, the government says, the = N.H.S. would be administered by a new, independent body, known as the N.H.S= . Commissioning Board. The changes apply only to England; other parts of Britain have separate sys= tems. Despite the opposition to the proposals, the government's parliamenta= ry majority means that the bill is likely to pass, possibly in altered form= after it has made its way through the legislative process. The government argues that the plan will cut waste, allow patients more aut= onomy over their treatment and give doctors and localities, rather than bur= eaucrats, more direct control of the system. Like other health care systems= around the world, the N.H.S., which provides treatment free at the point o= f service, has struggled to keep up with rising costs and increased demand. The government points out that doctors across nearly half of England have a= lready formed consortia. Dr. Ken Aswani, who works in Waltham Forest outsid= e London, told the BBC: "We will be looking to build on what we have been d= oing in recent years. That means getting services out of hospitals and into= the community where they are more accessible." Dr. Michael Dixon, chairman of the N.H.S. Alliance, which supports clinicia= ns' ability to commission health care, said it was inevitable that the prop= osals would provoke opposition. "Giving power to frontline clinicians and their patients is bound to upset = those with vested interests, such as some of the more centralist senior N.H= .S. managers who are used to ruling the roost," Dr. Dixon said. But opposition has been gathering since Mr. Cameron gave notice of his inte= ntions last summer. One issue, Dr. Gerada said, is that the reorganization = -- which was included in the small print of the governing coalition's elect= ion manifestos, but not raised in the campaign -- seems like another in a w= earying series of changes. In the 1990s, John Major's Conservative government gave general practitione= rs the option of being "fundholders," letting them buy treatment for their = patients. About half of England's general practitioners joined the program,= which was scrapped when Labour took power in 1997. Labour then introduced = the Strategic Health Authorities, which the government seeks to abandon. "We've had so many top-down reorganizations in this health service," Dr. Ge= rada said. "It's like planting a plant, pulling it up every few years, look= ing at its roots and then putting it back into the earth -- instead of pluc= king out the weeds and trimming back the overgrowth while letting the garde= n flourish." Other critics say the proposals are too expensive, particularly when the he= alth service is being deprived of the huge spending increases it received u= nder 13 years of Labour government. Despite pledges to preserve the health = budget from the severe cuts affecting most departments, the government is s= till demanding that the N.H.S. make $32 billion in efficiency savings by 20= 14. The government estimates that 20,900 N.H.S. workers, mostly from the primar= y care trusts, are expected to lose their jobs, The Guardian reported, thou= gh some would probably be rehired by general practitioner groups. One of the plan's boldest components is the pledge that patients will now g= et to choose their doctors, their hospitals and their treatments -- a radic= al proposal for a service in which patients can now sometimes wait months f= or specialist care. =A9 2011 by the New York Times Company Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862C1E2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Cameron = Seeks Vast Changes In England's Health Service

The New York Times
Th= u Jan 20 2011
Page: 4
Section: Foreign
Byline: SARAH LYALL <= /o:p>

LONDON -- Prime Minister David Cameron on Wednesday proposed a= radical reorganization of England's = health care system, introducing legislation that would hand resp= onsibility for most of the country's = health budget to its 42,000 general practitioners and, his polit= ical opponents say, open the door to private competition that could threate= n the foundations of socialized care.

Mr. Cameron argues= that the bill, said to be the biggest overhaul of the National Health Service since it was founded i= n 1948, is essential to increase efficiency and allow doctors, patients and= localities more control of how the h= ealth budget is spent.

Yet the prime ministe= r, who promised during last year's election campaign that he had no radical= plans to change the health service, faces formidable opposition from a wide array of critics. These = include the British Medical Association, members of Mr. Cameron's own Conse= rvative Party, patient advocates, hea= lth care specialists, heal= th workers' unions and even many of the primary care doctors who= are supposed to benefit under the proposals.

= "We f= eel, and many others feel, that this reform is too much, too complicated an= d not necessary in terms of organizational change," Dr. Clare Gerada, = chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said in an interv= iew. "Nobody's been able to convince anyone I've spoken to why we're d= oing it."

The complaints include criticisms that th= e plan is ill thought out, that it will prove too costly at a time of budge= tary retrenchment and that the competition and choice it promises will caus= e confusion and duplication, and encourage decision-making based on cost ra= ther than quality. In the eyes of conspiracy-minded Labour politicians, how= ever, the bill is a stalking horse for the eventual privatization of health care.

"My concern, in the l= ong run, is that this is opening up the whole of the N.H.S., all areas, to = competition and private health= companies," John Healey, the Labour health spokesman, told The Daily Telegraph. =

The bill would allow general practitioners to commission services f= rom "any willing provider," which the government says would encou= rage efficiency and quality, as providers competed for business.

But the N.H.S. Confederation, which represents organizations in th= e health service, says thi= s will lead to the closing of some hospitals and a move toward a more disjo= inted system in which private companies pick up the slack. Already there ar= e signs that American companies are stepping in to provide consulting and c= ommissioning services.

"Forcing commissioners of ca= re to tender contracts to any willing provider, including N.H.S. providers,= voluntary sector organizations and commercial companies, could destabilize= local health economies an= d fragment care for patients," Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British= Medical Association Council -- the group's executive committee -- said in = a statement.

Other critics said the changes would simply= not deliver the results Mr. Cameron promised. "The real choice is not= between stability and change, but between reforms that are well executed a= nd deliver results for patients, and reforms that are poorly planned and ri= sk undermining the N.H.S.," Chris Ham, chief executive of the King's F= und, an independent research group focusing on health care, said in a statement.

B= ut Mr. Cameron is committed to making "fundamental" changes. &quo= t;I don't think there is an option of just quietly standing still, staying = where we are and putting a bit more money into the N.H.S.," he told BB= C Radio this week.

Under the government's plan, some $12= 7 billion a year -- about 80 percent of the total health care budget -- would be handed directly to t= he country's 42,000 general practitioners, who would join together into con= sortia that would negotiate to buy treatment from hospitals and specialists= . The 151 bodies that currently make such spending decisions, known as prim= ary care trusts, would be abolished, as would another layer of bureaucracy,= 10 regional groups known as Strategic Health Authorities.

In order to help take= politics out of the system, the government says, the N.H.S. would be admin= istered by a new, independent body, known as the N.H.S. Commissioning Board= .

The changes apply only to England; other parts of Brit= ain have separate systems. Despite the opposition to the proposals, the gov= ernment's parliamentary majority means that the bill is likely to pass, pos= sibly in altered form after it has made its way through the legislative pro= cess.

The government argues that the plan will cut waste= , allow patients more autonomy over their treatment and give doctors and lo= calities, rather than bureaucrats, more direct control of the system. Like = other health care systems = around the world, the N.H.S., which provides treatment free at the point of= service, has struggled to keep up with rising costs and increased demand. =

The government points out that doctors across nearly hal= f of England have already formed consortia. Dr. Ken Aswani, who works in Wa= ltham Forest outside London, told the BBC: "We will be looking to buil= d on what we have been doing in recent years. That means getting services o= ut of hospitals and into the community where they are more accessible."= ;

Dr. Michael Dixon, chairman of the N.H.S. Alliance, wh= ich supports clinicians' ability to commission health care, said it was inevitable that the proposals= would provoke opposition.

"Giving power to frontli= ne clinicians and their patients is bound to upset those with vested intere= sts, such as some of the more centralist senior N.H.S. managers who are use= d to ruling the roost," Dr. Dixon said.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>But opposit= ion has been gathering since Mr. Cameron gave notice of his intentions last= summer. One issue, Dr. Gerada said, is that the reorganization -- which wa= s included in the small print of the governing coalition's election manifes= tos, but not raised in the campaign -- seems like another in a wearying ser= ies of changes.

In the 1990s, John Major's Conservative = government gave general practitioners the option of being "fundholders= ," letting them buy treatment for their patients. About half of Englan= d's general practitioners joined the program, which was scrapped when Labou= r took power in 1997. Labour then introduced the Strategic Health Authorities, which the government= seeks to abandon.

"We've had so many top-down reor= ganizations in this health= service," Dr. Gerada said. "It's like planting a plant, pulling = it up every few years, looking at its roots and then putting it back into t= he earth -- instead of plucking out the weeds and trimming back the overgro= wth while letting the garden flourish."

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Other criti= cs say the proposals are too expensive, particularly when the health service is being deprived of the= huge spending increases it received under 13 years of Labour government. D= espite pledges to preserve the health= budget from the severe cuts affecting most departments, the gov= ernment is still demanding that the N.H.S. make $32 billion in efficiency s= avings by 2014.

The government estimates that 20,900 N.H= .S. workers, mostly from the primary care trusts, are expected to lose thei= r jobs, The Guardian reported, though some would probably be rehired by gen= eral practitioner groups.

One of the plan's boldest com= ponents is the pledge that patients will now get to choose their doctors, t= heir hospitals and their treatments -- a radical proposal for a service in = which patients can now sometimes wait months for specialist care. =

=A9 2011 by the New York Times Company

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

S= enior Officer/Agente principale

<= span style=3D'font-size:10.0pt'>Research, Job Evaluation and Health & S= afety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation= des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employe= es/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

<= /html>= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2862C1E2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From hfarrow@cupe.ca Thu Jan 20 13:15:25 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0KIFPpo017193 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:15:25 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:15:25 -0500 From: Heather Farrow To: "healthcare@members.cupe.ca" Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:15:20 -0500 Thread-Topic: Suspend and investigate secret KGH/Compass foodservice deal community coalition urges Ontario health minister Thread-Index: Acu4zf9V0JpIqqq0RtWaMdq2K1dIxg== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C28638F@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C28638FE2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Suspend and investigate secret KGH/Compass foodservice deal community coalition urges Ontario health minister X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2011 18:15:25 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C28638FE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable From http://www.ochu.on.ca/kingston_general_hospital.html Media Advisory - January 19th, 2011 Suspend and investigate secret KGH/Compass foodservice deal community coali= tion urges Ontario health minister KINGSTON, Ont. - Ontario's health minister must step in and suspend the Kin= gston General Hospital (KGH) foodservice contract with a factory-food opera= tion and conduct a thorough investigation into the potential infraction of = the province's procurement criteria, says a community-coalition opposing th= e outsourcing deal. This week, the Ontari= o Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) sent a letter to Minister Deborah Matth= ews on behalf of 'People Who Care About Kingston' urging her to halt the de= al while she reviews key aspects. Copies of the letter were also sent to On= tario's Auditor General, James McCarter, Environment Minister, John Wilkins= on, and Kingston area MPP, John Gerretsen. Details of the letter to Minister Matthews will be made public by Michael H= urley, President, OCHU, at a media conference on Thursday, January 20, 2011= , 2:00 p.m. in the Sir John A. Macdonald Room, Kingston City Hall, 216 Onta= rio Street. For more information about the local hospital food campaign, go to: www.kin= gstonfoodfight.ca. For more information, please contact: Michael Hurley President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) (416) 8= 84-0770 Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications (416) 559-9300 Heather Heather Farrow Health Care Research Assistant Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) National Office 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 hfarrow@cupe.ca www.cupe.ca Fax: 613-237-5508 Tel: 613-237-1590, ext. 320 Cell from Sept. 1 to Nov. 1 2010: 613-552-0858 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C28638FE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable = --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C28638FE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Mon Jan 24 13:33:26 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0OIXQ2k029834 for ; Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:33:26 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:33:27 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:33:24 -0500 Thread-Topic: Private clinic opens doors to government auditors; Doctor readily admits to breaking the law Thread-Index: Acu79S8eB0el0MeUR0ync07OAov4WQ== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C286B0E@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C286B0EE2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Private clinic opens doors to government auditors; Doctor readily admits to breaking the law X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 24 Jan 2011 18:33:27 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C286B0EE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Private clinic opens doors to government auditors; Doctor readily admits to= breaking the law The Globe and Mail Mon Jan 24 2011 Page: S1 Section: British Columbia News Byline: Justine Hunter Dateline: VICTORIA VICTORIA -- Brian Day will open the doors of his private surgery clinics on= Monday to auditors from the B.C. Medical Services Commission, ending a two= -year-long battle over the government agency's right to inspect his books. The auditors will seek to determine if Dr. Day's surgery clinics are contra= vening a B.C. law that prohibits extra-billing of patients for medically ne= cessary services. He readily admits that is how the clinics work. "They are investigating to find out if we are breaking the law of the B.C. = Medicare Protection Act and we have always told them we are," Dr. Day said = in an interview. "It's a waste of taxpayers' dollars." He has fought the audits in court since January, 2009, saying a court chall= enge to the law should be heard first. Dr. Day, former president of the Can= adian Medical Association, said the Medicare Protection Act, which restrict= s the ability of physicians and facilities to charge patients fees for medi= cal services, violates British Columbians' right to access timely medical c= are. Last November, when the commission sought a warrant to force the clinics to= open their files, his lawyers approached the province and asked to work ou= t terms for an audit. The province won't comment on the scope of the audit. Dr. Day said he has a= greed to open his books on a randomly selected, six-month period. It means = auditors will have access to thousands of patient records, which are kept e= lectronically. Adrian Dix, the opposition health critic, called the audit "inadequate" and= said the government doesn't really want to the get to the bottom of the cl= inics' actions because the public would then see how much the health-care s= ystem in B.C. has come to rely on private clinics for medically necessary c= are. "The government has a don't ask, don't tell policy," he said. "To accept hi= s limitations on an audit is ridiculous." Health Minister Colin Hansen said it will be up to the commission to determ= ine what will happen if the clinics are found to be breaking the law. "I wouldn't want to jump to conclusions. It's about whether their practices= are in compliance with the Medicare Protection Act," Mr. Hansen said. He w= ould not say what sort of violations they are looking for. "I don't think a= nyone is going in with any predetermined notions." The province didn't initiate the audits on its own accord. In 2007, the com= mission received complaints from patients who said they were extra-billed b= y private clinics. The B.C. Nurses' Union has backed those complaints in a bid to embarrass th= e B.C. Liberal government over the existing two-tier medical system, which = allows some patients to jump the queue for surgeries and medical tests. In = the legal back-and-forth that followed, the Medical Services Commission sou= ght to find out exactly what Dr. Day's clinics are billing. Dr. Day agrees with his critics on one point: That the B.C. government will= be embarrassed when the trial gets under way. "The government is much happier with the perceived action of trying to inve= stigate 'private, for-profit clinics,' " he said. He argues the audits are = an attempt to stall the court case where the province will be forced to def= end a law that aims to deny patients the option to access faster medical tr= eatment. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C286B0EE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Private clinic opens doors to government audito= rs; Doctor readily admits to breaking the law

The Globe and Mail
Mon Jan 24 2011
Page: S1
Section: Bri= tish Columbia News
Byline: Justine Hunter
Dateline: VICTORIA

VICTORIA -- Brian Day will open the doors of his private surgery= clinics on Monday to auditors from the B.C. Medical Services Commission, e= nding a two-year-long battle over the government agency's right to inspect = his books.

The auditors will seek to determine if Dr. Da= y's surgery clinics are contravening a B.C. law that prohibits extra-billin= g of patients for medically necessary services. He readily admits that is h= ow the clinics work.

"They are investigating to fin= d out if we are breaking the law of the B.C. Medicare Protection Act and we have always told them we = are," Dr. Day said in an interview. "It's a waste of taxpayers' d= ollars."

He has fought the audits in court since Ja= nuary, 2009, saying a court challenge to the law should be heard first. Dr.= Day, former president of the Canadian Medical Association, said the Medicare Protection Act, which r= estricts the ability of physicians and facilities to charge patients fees f= or medical services, violates British Columbians' right to access timely me= dical care.

Last November, when the commission sought a = warrant to force the clinics to open their files, his lawyers approached th= e province and asked to work out terms for an audit.

=

The= province won't comment on the scope of the audit. Dr. Day said he has agre= ed to open his books on a randomly selected, six-month period. It means aud= itors will have access to thousands of patient records, which are kept elec= tronically.

Adrian Dix, the opposition health critic, called the audit "inade= quate" and said the government doesn't really want to the get to the b= ottom of the clinics' actions because the public would then see how much th= e health-care system in B.= C. has come to rely on private clinics for medically necessary care. <= /o:p>

"The government has a don't ask, don't tell policy,"= he said. "To accept his limitations on an audit is ridiculous." =

Health Minister Colin Hansen said= it will be up to the commission to determine what will happen if the clini= cs are found to be breaking the law.

"I wouldn't wa= nt to jump to conclusions. It's about whether their practices are in compli= ance with the Medicare Pro= tection Act," Mr. Hansen said. He would not say what sort of violation= s they are looking for. "I don't think anyone is going in with any pre= determined notions."

The province didn't initiate = the audits on its own accord. In 2007, the commission received complaints f= rom patients who said they were extra-billed by private clinics.

The B.C. Nurses' Union has backed those complaints in a bid to emb= arrass the B.C. Liberal government over the existing two-tier medical system, which allows some patie= nts to jump the queue for surgeries and medical tests. In the legal back-an= d-forth that followed, the Medical Services Commission sought to find out e= xactly what Dr. Day's clinics are billing.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Dr. Day agr= ees with his critics on one point: That the B.C. government will be embarra= ssed when the trial gets under way.

"The government= is much happier with the perceived action of trying to investigate 'privat= e, for-profit clinics,' " he said. He argues the audits are an attempt= to stall the court case where the province will be forced to defend a law = that aims to deny patients the option to access faster medical treatment.

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job E= valuation and Health & Safety Branch/

Service de la recher= che, de l’=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9=

Cana= dian Union of Public Employees/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G = 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

&n= bsp;

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C286B0EE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Wed Jan 26 10:42:40 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0QFgeus021565 for ; Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:42:40 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:42:40 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:42:39 -0500 Thread-Topic: Stilwell floats ideas for private health care; Thread-Index: AQHLvW+pGwWE7IrSUU6Mx82N4eRf6Q== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5BEA9D4F@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-CA X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by lists.cupe.ca id p0QFgeus021565 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] BC: Stilwell floats ideas for private health care; X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 15:42:40 -0000 Stilwell floats ideas for private health care; MD-turned-candidate for Liberal leadership suggests choosing private care means sticking with it for follow-ups The Globe and Mail Wed Jan 26 2011 Page: S3 Section: British Columbia News Byline: Ian Bailey Dateline: VANCOUVER VANCOUVER -- British Columbians who seek private health care should stick with private care for follow-ups, says Moira Stilwell, a radiologist and nuclear medicine physician who is seeking the leadership of the B.C. Liberals. The former B.C. cabinet minister outlined the idea Tuesday as part of her platform to reform the province's health-care system, which includes holding a public discussion about what type of private care best meets the needs of the public system. "We are so scared to even mention private care, we don't have a discussion. We pretend private care doesn't exist," Ms. Stilwell said, according to a copy of her prepared remarks released by her campaign. "My personal preference would be to say that if you choose private care for your procedure, you would need to stick with private care for any follow-up. But that's just my opinion. My point is that we need to free ourselves to have this discussion." Ms. Stilwell had a long career in medicine before seeking and winning a seat in the 2009 election. She stepped down as minister of regional economic and skills development to seek the Liberal leadership after Premier Gordon Campbell resigned. Ms. Stilwell said there has to be an assessment of whether the private system can help relieve waitlists for routine procedures in the public system such as contracting out hip and knee surgeries, which "might be able to be done more effectively in the private system." Ms. Stilwell called for benchmarking success and complication rates for such private contracting. "If a contractor is within the norms for complications, then the public system will pay for any services related to complications. If a contractor is operating outside of the norms, then the private (provider) needs to pay for services related to the complications," she said in her remarks. Ms. Stillwell, campaigning in the Prince George area, was not available for comment on her proposals. Other candidates in the Liberal leadership race welcomed the prospect of a dialogue, without taking a specific position on some of her proposals. Christy Clark said there may be political perils in Ms. Stilwell's calls for such a discussion, but the role of private health care would inevitably come up in a forum for a public debate that she would launch if she becomes premier to help government set a direction for health care. "Perhaps there is political risk," said Ms. Clark, a former deputy premier, returning to public life after several years as a radio talk show host. "I would also point out the political risk in lacking the courage to say what you think, and I am glad Moira is saying what she thinks. She knows a lot about the health-care system, and I admire that, that she is willing to speak up." Leadership candidate George Abbott, who was health minister between 2005 and 2009, said he would not exclude any subject, including the role of private care, from a discussion about managing health care in B.C. He said the use of private services would be circumscribed by the limits imposed by the Canada Health Act, and statutes in British Columbia. He noted the system already includes some elements of private health-care delivery such as clearing backlogs of surgeries. The leadership contest will be held on Feb. 2 From colleen_fuller@telus.net Wed Jan 26 12:57:21 2011 Received: from defout.telus.net (outbound05.telus.net [199.185.220.224]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0QHvKFQ028179 for ; Wed, 26 Jan 2011 12:57:21 -0500 Received: from edtncm04 ([199.185.220.240]) by priv-edtnes26.telusplanet.net (InterMail vM.8.01.03.00 201-2260-125-20100507) with ESMTP id <20110126175720.BZCW24858.priv-edtnes26.telusplanet.net@edtncm04> for ; Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:57:20 -0700 Received: from [192.168.2.100] ([206.116.58.209]) by edtncm04 with bizsmtp id 0HwQ1g00z4WrEla01HwQLi; Wed, 26 Jan 2011 10:56:24 -0700 X-Authority-Analysis: v=1.1 cv=94BYi3n8JE47UgRSiUh6aHGUk/xWnKFVSisjRvp+HfU= c=1 sm=1 a=Dj-C-hXJfq8A:10 a=XwFYDZEQSzw7/fCOVGO/lA==:17 a=NY8m7hEHN9uhTmwupJIA:9 a=nxmKpbzWSNMRmOayR-37xq-m8UoA:4 a=pILNOxqGKmIA:10 a=dmGsqKecNkoA:10 a=Fw9_K4Yip8ogo7qgBbQA:7 a=UAss4TsviFuSQ_n1yMK0XvfQWssA:4 a=XwFYDZEQSzw7/fCOVGO/lA==:117 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v1078) Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=Apple-Mail-4--70140099 From: Colleen Fuller In-Reply-To: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5BEA9D4F@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 09:57:19 -0800 Message-Id: <5700F3E6-A043-47B9-AA49-5FD740EC69E8@telus.net> References: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5BEA9D4F@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> To: Jennifer Whiteside X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1078) Cc: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca Subject: Re: [CUPE healthcare list] BC: Stilwell floats ideas for private health care; X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2011 17:57:21 -0000 --Apple-Mail-4--70140099 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Ms. Stilwell said there has to be an assessment of whether the private = system can help relieve waitlists for routine procedures in the public = system such as contracting out hip and knee surgeries, which "might be = able to be done more effectively in the private system." And where has Ms Stilwell been for the last decade and a half while = evidence has accumulated that private surgeries lengthen the queue in = the public system? I guess if you are an elected doctor you don't have = to heed the evidence.=20 C/ Colleen Fuller 604.255-6601 Vancouver, B.C. =93We have guided missiles, yet misguided men.=94=20 Martin Luther King Jr On 2011-01-26, at 7:42 AM, Jennifer Whiteside wrote: > Ms. Stilwell said there has to be an assessment of whether the private = system can help relieve waitlists for routine procedures in the public = system such as contracting out hip and knee surgeries, which "might be = able to be done more effectively in the private system." --Apple-Mail-4--70140099 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/html; charset=windows-1252

And where has Ms Stilwell been for the = last decade and a half while evidence has accumulated that private = surgeries lengthen the queue in the public system? I guess if you are an = elected doctor you don't have to heed the = evidence. 

C/


<= div>
Colleen = Fuller
604.255-6601
Vancouver, = B.C.

=93We have guided missiles, yet misguided = men.=94 
 Martin Luther King = Jr









On 2011-01-26, at 7:42 AM, Jennifer Whiteside = wrote:

Ms. Stilwell said there has to = be an assessment of whether the private system can help relieve = waitlists for routine procedures in the public system such as = contracting out hip and knee surgeries, which "might be able to be done = more effectively in the private = system."

= --Apple-Mail-4--70140099-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Thu Jan 27 15:13:44 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0RKDi3b019210 for ; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:13:44 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:13:44 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:13:41 -0500 Thread-Topic: Maternal health begins at home Thread-Index: Acu+XrE3sgp/IMWvRauXfbkZ6Cvw7w== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2E186D@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2E186DE2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] Maternal health begins at home X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 27 Jan 2011 20:13:44 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2E186DE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Maternal health begins at home Ottawa Citizen Thu Jan 27 2011 Page: A10 Section: Editorial Byline: Elizabeth Payne Column: Elizabeth Payne Source: Ottawa Citizen A year after he put the issue on the international agenda in Davos, Prime M= inister Stephen Harper was back in Switzerland this week describing the "wa= ve of hope" that improvements in maternal health will bring to the developi= ng world. He's right. That 350,000 women die every year around the world during pregn= ancy and birth, of causes that we know how to prevent, is a shameful statis= tic the world has ignored for too long. Changing that will improve many thi= ngs in the developing world. And setting up a commission to oversee how the= billions of dollars pledged to improve the situation are spent is a good w= ay of ensuring that this is one feel-good promise that is actually kept. Harper, who co-chairs the UN commission, should take notes on ways to ensur= e promises made at home are also kept. Harper's G8 initiative on maternal health has been dogged by controversy --= much of it of his government's own making. The initiative may be less effe= ctive than it could have been because of restrictions on funding around abo= rtion that may also affect family planning. But, in the end, there is reaso= n for hope that there will be some significant improvement in maternal mort= ality rates because of the effort spearheaded by Harper and followed-throug= h by the United Nations. And, although it is an unintended consequence, Harper's Year of Maternal He= alth has resulted in growing pressure and momentum to take action at home, = particularly in Canada's North, where mothers and newborns are in need of t= heir own wave of hope. When Harper announced plans to make maternal health a G8 initiative and eve= ntually pledged billions of dollars to the cause, many Canadians, especiall= y those from remote and northern indigenous communities, had the same thoug= ht. "Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper must look at his own backyard before he st= arts being a Good Samaritan for other countries. We have the same problems = as Third World countries with respect to health," was the response of Nunav= ut Health Minister Tagak Curley. And he wasn't the only one to note that Harper's initiative has highlighted= the dismal state of maternal health in remote and northern Canada, somethi= ng that could also be improved with the kind of leadership the prime minist= er has shown on the international stage. We are still waiting for any such northern maternal health leadership from = the federal government, or even a real acknowledgment that it has a role to= play, which is a shocking failure at home. Despite that, there is a kind o= f momentum building to tackle the issue, partly as a reaction to the G8 ini= tiative, which may be the beginning of change. That attention is long overdue. Just as Harper was announcing intentions to= tackle maternal health last year, two reports were released detailing the = state of maternal and infant health in the North. One study found that Inui= t infant mortality is nearly four times as high as the Canadian average. Th= e other found that the majority of Inuit preschool children (70 per cent) l= ive in homes where there is not always enough food to eat. The studies are all the more shocking given that, as Harper has pointed out= internationally, the solutions are relatively simple. "We question why, if these solutions are not expensive and are 'within the = reach of any country in the G8,' the situation in (the) Inuit (homeland) re= mains what it is today?" Mary Simon of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami wrote in a b= log post at the time. Her words and the words of others are getting some response. The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists of Canada is a strong and in= creasingly vocal supporter of improved maternal health in remote Canada. Wi= th a shortage of doctors, one key to improving maternal health in remote Ca= nada is for health professionals, including midwives, nurses, nurse-practit= ioners, family doctors and obstetricians to work together. Another key, it = said in a paper released last month, is to end the practice of flying women= out of their communities and allow them to have babies close to home. The Canadian Nurses Association is also looking at ways to improve maternal= health among First Nations, Metis and Inuit populations in Canada as is th= e Health Council of Canada. Nunavut has its own plan for improving maternal health, a key component of = which is returning birth to small communities, but its health minister says= the territory, which spends one-fifth of its health budget on transporting= patients to doctors, and doctors and nurses to patients, can't afford to m= ake much progress. What is needed now is some leadership to turn the plans = and discussions into better health for mothers and babies. It is time for Harper to bring his wave of hope home. Elizabeth Payne is a member of the Citizen's editorial board Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2E186DE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Maternal= health begins at home

Ottawa Citizen <= br>Thu Jan 27 2011
Page: A10
Section: Editorial
Byline: Elizabe= th Payne
Column: Elizabeth Payne
Source: Ottawa Citizen

A year after he put the issue on the international agenda in Davos, P= rime Minister Stephen Harper was back in Switzerland this week describing t= he "wave of hope" that improvements in maternal health will bring= to the developing world.

He's right. That 350,000 wome= n die every year around the world during pregnancy and birth, of causes tha= t we know how to prevent, is a shameful statistic the world has ignored for= too long. Changing that will improve many things in the developing world. = And setting up a commission to oversee how the billions of dollars pledged = to improve the situation are spent is a good way of ensuring that this is o= ne feel-good promise that is actually kept.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>Harper, who= co-chairs the UN commission, should take notes on ways to ensure promises = made at home are also kept.

Harper's G8 initiative on ma= ternal health has been dogged by controversy -- much of it of his governmen= t's own making. The initiative may be less effective than it could have bee= n because of restrictions on funding around abortion that may also affect f= amily planning. But, in the end, there is reason for hope that there will b= e some significant improvement in maternal mortality rates because of the e= ffort spearheaded by Harper and followed-through by the United Nations.

And, although it is an unintended consequence, Harper's Yea= r of Maternal Health has resulted in growing pressure and momentum to take = action at home, particularly in Canada's North, where mothers and newborns = are in need of their own wave of hope.

When Harper annou= nced plans to make maternal health a G8 initiative and eventually pledged b= illions of dollars to the cause, many Canadians, especially those from remo= te and northern indigenous communities, had the same thought.

"Prime Minister (Stephen) Harper must look at his own backyard b= efore he starts being a Good Samaritan for other countries. We have the sam= e problems as Third World countries with respect to health," was the r= esponse of Nunavut Health Minister Tagak Curley.

And he = wasn't the only one to note that Harper's initiative has highlighted the di= smal state of maternal health in remote and northern Canada, something that= could also be improved with the kind of leadership the prime minister has = shown on the international stage.

We are still waiting = for any such northern maternal health leadership from the federal governmen= t, or even a real acknowledgment that it has a role to play, which is a sho= cking failure at home. Despite that, there is a kind of momentum building t= o tackle the issue, partly as a reaction to the G8 initiative, which may be= the beginning of change.

That attention is long overdu= e. Just as Harper was announcing intentions to tackle maternal health last = year, two reports were released detailing the state of maternal and infant = health in the North. One study found that Inuit infant mortality is nearly = four times as high as the Canadian average. The other found that the majori= ty of Inuit preschool children (70 per cent) live in homes where there is n= ot always enough food to eat.

The studies are all the mo= re shocking given that, as Harper has pointed out internationally, the solu= tions are relatively simple.

"We question why, if t= hese solutions are not expensive and are 'within the reach of any country i= n the G8,' the situation in (the) Inuit (homeland) remains what it is today= ?" Mary Simon of Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami wrote in a blog post at the t= ime.

Her words and the words of others are getting some = response.

The Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists= of Canada is a strong and increasingly vocal supporter of improved materna= l health in remote Canada. With a shortage of doctors, one key to improving= maternal health in remote Canada is for health professionals, including mi= dwives, nurses, nurse-practitioners, family doctors and obstetricians to wo= rk together. Another key, it said in a paper released last month, is to end= the practice of flying women out of their communities and allow them to ha= ve babies close to home.

The Canadian Nurses Associati= on is also looking at ways to improve maternal health among First Nations, = Metis and Inuit populations in Canada as is the Health Council of Canada.

Nunavut = has its own plan for improving maternal health, a key component of which is= returning birth to small communities, but its health minister says the ter= ritory, which spends one-fifth of its health budget on transporting patient= s to doctors, and doctors and nurses to patients, can't afford to make much= progress. What is needed now is some leadership to turn the plans and disc= ussions into better health for mothers and babies.

It is= time for Harper to bring his wave of hope home.

Elizabe= th Payne is a member of the Citizen's editorial board

=

 

 <= /o:p>

Jennifer Whi= teside

Senior Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health= & Safety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9= valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Publi= c Employees/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590,= x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C2E186DE2K7CLUSTERcu_-- From jwhiteside@cupe.ca Mon Jan 31 16:42:59 2011 Received: from CUPEHUB1.CUPE.CA (cupehub1.cupedom.local [10.1.0.81]) by lists.cupe.ca (8.12.11.20060308/8.12.11) with ESMTP id p0VLgxNc009321 for ; Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:42:59 -0500 Received: from E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.76]) by cupehub1.cupedom.local ([10.1.0.81]) with mapi; Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:42:59 -0500 From: Jennifer Whiteside To: "healthcare@lists.cupe.ca" Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 16:42:58 -0500 Thread-Topic: CMA Health Care Transformation in Canada Thread-Index: AcvBj9OJkgPGPtYMTO2qbt2ILmip9w== Message-ID: <8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C344B4A@E2K7CLUSTER.cupedom.local> Accept-Language: en-US Content-Language: en-US X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: acceptlanguage: en-US Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C344B4AE2K7CLUSTERcu_" MIME-Version: 1.0 Subject: [CUPE healthcare list] CMA Health Care Transformation in Canada X-BeenThere: healthcare@lists.cupe.ca X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.8 Precedence: list List-Id: "Share news, research and ideas to defend public health care." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2011 21:42:59 -0000 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C344B4AE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Link to the CMA Health Transformation site: http://www.healthcaretransforma= tion.ca/en/ After heavy online response, CMA's transformation message hits the road by Patrick Sullivan January 24, 2011 Canadians have plenty to say about what their health care system should loo= k like, and they're not shy about saying it. Within a month of the CMA's launch of an online public dialogue about the f= uture of Canada's health care system, the Health Care Transformation campai= gn website has received more than 6= 30 comments about the original three discussion points, and visitors had la= unched new forums on 22 different topics. "One thing that's clear from the response," said CMA President Jeff Turnbul= l, "is that Canadians get pretty passionate about their health care system.= " The CMA launched the campaign website in mid-December. "As physicians, we h= ear every day from our patients that the system needs an overhaul and that = they don't have a say," Turnbull said then. "You do have a say, and we look= forward to hearing from you." CMA members can also participate in their own online transformation debate = at www.asklepios.ca, the CMA's networking site for physicians, or at a seri= es of "town hall" sessions for doctors. The first "transformation town hall" for members was held Jan. 13, as Turnb= ull met with 50 medical students at Queen's University. The meeting ran wel= l over the two hours that were scheduled as students raised numerous questi= ons about what the health care system will look like when they enter practi= ce. "This is your future we are discussing," Turnbull told the students. "You h= ave to mobilize on this issue." By the end of June, Turnbull and other CMA representatives will have partic= ipated in nine town hall discussions with members. The CMA will also be co-hosting six "Conversations with Maclean's," during = which editors of the newsmagazine will moderate panel discussions on the tr= ansformation issue for the public. The first Maclean's session will be held in Halifax Jan. 26, and features o= pening remarks by Turnbull and a panel that will include Maclean's National= Editor Andrew Coyne and Dr. Jane Brooks, president of Doctors Nova Scotia. The CMA-Maclean's public town hall sessions are the most extensive national= public consultations the CMA has been involved in since the early 1980s, w= hen its Task Force on the Allocation of Health Care Resources held hearings= across the country. One respondent to the online questions said the CMA campaign provided a cha= nce to participate in an important debate. "It is great to do a lot of comp= laining," she wrote, "but if you as a concerned citizen want to play an act= ive role in democracy, you had best start coming up with a few good possibl= e solutions instead of complaining about the lousy job that everyone else i= s doing." Forward any comments about this article to: cmanews@cma.ca. Jennifer Whiteside Senior Officer/Agente principale Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety Branch/ Service de la recherche, de l'=E9valuation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s= =E9curit=E9 Canadian Union of Public Employees/SCFP 1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7 (613) 237-1590, x 248 --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C344B4AE2K7CLUSTERcu_ Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

= Link to the CMA Health Transformation site: http://www.healthcaretransformation.ca/en/=

After heavy online response, CMA's transformation mes= sage hits the road

by Patrick Sullivan

January 24, 2011

Canadians have= plenty to say about what their health care system should look like, and th= ey're not shy about saying it.

Within a month of the CMA's= launch of an online public dialogue about the future of Canada's health ca= re system, the Health Care Transformation campaign website has received more = than 630 comments about the original three discussion points, and visitors = had launched new forums on 22 different topics.

"One = thing that's clear from the response," said CMA President Jeff Turnbul= l, "is that Canadians get pretty passionate about their health care sy= stem."

The CMA launched the campaign website in mid-D= ecember. "As physicians, we hear every day from our patients that the = system needs an overhaul and that they don't have a say," Turnbull sai= d then. "You do have a say, and we look forward to hearing from you.&q= uot;

CMA members can also participate in their own online = transformation debate at www.asklepios.ca, the CMA's networking site for ph= ysicians, or at a series of "town hall" sessions for doctors.

The first "transformation town hall" for members wa= s held Jan. 13, as Turnbull met with 50 medical students at Queen's Univers= ity. The meeting ran well over the two hours that were scheduled as student= s raised numerous questions about what the health care system will look lik= e when they enter practice.

"This is your future we a= re discussing," Turnbull told the students. "You have to mobilize= on this issue."

By the end of June, Turnbull and oth= er CMA representatives will have participated in nine town hall discussions= with members.

The CMA will also be co-hosting six "C= onversations with Maclean's," during which editors of the new= smagazine will moderate panel discussions on the transformation issue for t= he public.

The first Maclean's session will be he= ld in Halifax Jan. 26, and features opening remarks by Turnbull and a panel= that will include Maclean's National Editor Andrew Coyne and Dr. = Jane Brooks, president of Doctors Nova Scotia.

The CMA-Maclean's public town hall sessions are the most extensive national p= ublic consultations the CMA has been involved in since the early 1980s, whe= n its Task Force on the Allocation of Health Care Resources held hearings a= cross the country.

One respondent to the online questions = said the CMA campaign provided a chance to participate in an important deba= te. "It is great to do a lot of complaining," she wrote, "bu= t if you as a concerned citizen want to play an active role in democracy, y= ou had best start coming up with a few good possible solutions instead of c= omplaining about the lousy job that everyone else is doing."

Forward any comments about this article to: cmanews@cma.ca.

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior = Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety = Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des = emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/SC= FP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

= --_000_8F5713DF2D6DF14293423EF519BFB40D8C5C344B4AE2K7CLUSTERcu_--

 

From

http://www.ochu.on.ca/kingston_general_hospital.html=

 

Media Advisory - January 19th, 2011

Suspend and investigate secret KGH/Compass foodservice deal co= mmunity coalition urges Ontario health minister


KINGSTON, Ont. – Ontario’s health minister must st= ep in and suspend the Kingston General Hospital (KGH) foodservice contract = with a factory-food operation and conduct a thorough investigation into the= potential infraction of the province’s procurement criteria, says a = community-coalition opposing the outsourcing deal.
This week, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (= OCHU) sent a letter to Minister Deborah Matthews on behalf of ‘People= Who Care About Kingston’ urging her to halt the deal while she revie= ws key aspects. Copies of the letter were also sent to Ontario’s Audi= tor General, James McCarter, Environment Minister, John Wilkinson, and King= ston area MPP, John Gerretsen.

Details of the letter to Minister Mat= thews will be made public by Michael Hurley, President, OCHU, at a media co= nference on Thursday, January 20, 2011, 2:00 p.m. in the Sir John A. Macdon= ald Room, Kingston City Hall, 216 Ontario Street.

For more informat= ion about the local hospital food campaign, go to: www.kingstonfoodfight.ca.

= For more information, please contact:

Michael Hurley President, Onta= rio Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) (416) 884-0770
Stella Yeadon CUPE = Communications (416) 559-9300

 

 

 

 

 

Heather

 

Heather FarrowHealth Care Research Assistant
Canadian Union of Public Employees (C= UPE)
National Office
1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7&nbs= p; 
= hfarrow@cupe.ca
www.cupe.ca
Fax: 613-237-5508
Tel: 613-2= 37-1590, ext. 320

Cell from Sept. 1 to No= v. 1 2010: 613-552-0858

&nbs= p;

&nbs= p;

 

 

 

 

&n= bsp;

Public health-care solutions pay dividends; D= elisted services, private facilities undermining key B.C. advantages

Times Colonist (Victoria)
Thu Jan 13 2011=
Page: A11
Section: Comment
Byline: Adrian Dix
Source: Spec= ial to Times Colonist

British Columbia's economic assets a= re often seen in terms of geography -- its natural resources, proximity to = markets in Asia and extraordinary natural beauty.

But ac= cording to international research, B.C. is a better choice for enterprise t= han Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angles and other commercial centres, in par= t because of its public health= care system.

Vancouver and Prince George occupy the= top spots in KPMG's biannual Competitive Alternatives Survey, which ranks = cities according to the cost advantage they provide companies. Our "co= mpetitive advantage" is less now than a decade ago, but still signific= ant.

Vancouver and Prince George place No. 1 and 2 for t= he Pacific region, while Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco = rank 8 to 11. KPMG arrived at these rankings in part because public non-pro= fit health care is a great= deal for the private sector, as employers save considerably by not having = to pay for most medical benefits.

Our public health-care system thus is a key ass= et B.C. should leverage to diversify its economic base. <= /p>

= For example, knowledge-based industries face higher labour costs because of= the scientific and technical expertise of their workforce. Companies in fi= elds like biomedical research and digital media need to provide health care insurance to recruit and = retain skilled labour.

A provincial strategy targeting i= ndustries should underscore that in B.C. firms save on these costs. Sector-= specific studies reiterate this -- an analysis by IBM-PLI, a global consult= ancy firm, concluded that cities like Vancouver offer digital media firms a= significant advantage thanks to the public health insurance plan.

Yet in the past= decade, it has been B.C.'s chief rivals such as Ontario that have capitali= zed on medicare. Ontario's= economic development agency highlights how the province's health care system reduces operating cos= ts. According to Paul Krugman, New York Times columnist and a Nobel Prize-w= inning economist, Toyota's decision to select Ontario over other North Amer= ican locations was based in large part because of public health care.

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>In contrast= , the B.C government has been diminishing our province's competitive advant= age by undermining public health care. It has adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" policy on p= rivate clinics illegally charging patients to earn a profit, alleged violat= ions of the Medicare Prote= ction Act that increase the overall cost of health care in B.C. They have delisted services and seen = private health care costs = -- often paid by employers and employees through health plans -- increase dramatically as compared to= increase in public health= care costs.

Even with its current challenges, "soc= ialized medicine" proves to be far more cost-efficient and reliable an= d provides better quality care than private, for-profit health care. On average, the U.S. spends two-= and-a-half times more per person for = health care than other advanced countries, with profits to priva= te insurance managers representing 20 per cent of total costs. <= /span>

Arnold Reiman, former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine,= recently wrote that "because of its overhead, as well as the expense = of billing and collecting it imposes on doctors and hospitals, the investor= -owned for-profit insurance industry probably adds at least $150 [billion t= o] $200 billion to the annual cost of providing health coverage to the American population."

A coherent economic development strategy for B.C. would cap= italize and strengthen, not diminish, the competitive advantage public <= span style=3D'background:#FFFF99'>health care affords us. The sa= me public solutions that can reduce wait times, lower drug costs, improve p= atient outcomes and increase cost efficiency in our health care system also make B.C. a more attracti= ve choice for private firms.

But the focus and energy re= quired to establish the long-term care beds and network of specialized, eff= icient non-profit surgical clinics that would reduce and stabilize wait tim= es, to set up nurse practitioner clinics to lower hospitalization rates and= expand the Therapeutic Initiative's independent assessment of drug treatme= nts to protect patients and taxpayers has been diverted by the government's= questioning of a single-payer health= system.

It accomplishes the opposite, weaken= ing public health care at = the expense of patients, health-care workers, social justice and even the business community.

Public health = care remains a great deal for B.C. patients and businesses. It combines, as= health economist Steven L= ewis has said, "social justice with administrative efficiency." <= o:p>

Adrian Dix is an MLA and the NDP health critic.

 

 

Jennifer Whiteside

Senior = Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health & Safety = Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valuation des = emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Employees/SC= FP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 248

 

 

Stepping up the fighta gainst superbugs; Pilot project shows effectiveness of pu= tting front-line hospital staff i= n charge of infection control

The Globe= and Mail
Tue Jan 11 2011
Page: A3
Section: National News
B= yline: Caroline Alphonso
Dateline: TORONTO

<= span style=3D'font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"'>TORONTO -- = They are nasty drug-resistant bacteria that haunt hospital hallways, infecting thousands and killing = an estimated 12,000 Canadians annually, and now a new initiative aims to pu= t the squeeze on superbugs= .

What started as a pilot project at five hospitals abou= t two years ago expanded Monday to another 30. The bug-fighting approach pl= aces the onus on front-line staff, not infection-control doctors, to come u= p with practical strategies for their particular floors to reduce the sprea= d of hospital- acquired in= fections.

"We've been trying to control these thing= s for 40 years now, and the rates keep going up. It will just keep getting = worse and worse," said Michael Gardam, who leads the initiative and is= the medical director of infection prevention and control at the University= Health Network. "[With this program,] they own it now. They're doing = it."

Over the next few months, and perhaps even a y= ear, the 30 hospitals that have signed on to the superbug initiative will d= evelop tactics for specific wards that take aim at Clostridium difficile (<= b>C. difficile), methicillin-= resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRS= A) and a host of other sup= erbugs that kill at least as many people in Canada annually as b= reast cancer and car accidents combined.

More than 200,0= 00 patients suffer from hospital-acquired infections each year, a consequence of three factors: overp= rescribing of antibiotics that have helped create drug-resistant bugs; old = and overcrowded hospitals; and health= - care workers not following basic hand hygiene. An outbreak of = C. difficile at Joseph Bra= nt Memorial Hospital in Bu= rlington, Ont., in 2006 and 2007 led to the deaths of 91 people.

Infection-control experts in hospitals find that messages around c= ontrolling infection rarely stick with front-line staff. Dr. Gardam said hi= s thoughts on prevention used to involve placing more gel dispensers in war= ds or educating health-care workers about hygiene. But the pilot project involving three Ontario hosp= itals and two in British Columbia opened his eyes to the changes that happe= n by empowering hospital w= orkers.

Those working on the superbug project at Toronto= East General Hospital, fo= r example, put green tags on IV poles to indicate they've been disinfected = (they're analyzing the effectiveness of that initiative). At Vancouver Gene= ral Hospital, staff on a p= articular floor carry hand sanitizer to clean patients' hands before they r= eceive meal trays.

And at the long-term continuing care = unit at Trillium Health Centre's west Toronto site, don't be surprised if y= ou hear one staff member calling another Nurse Jackson - a code word used t= o address poor infection control.

Project leaders say t= hey've noticed the number of superbug infections decrease as a direct resul= t of nurses and hospital s= taff being involved.

"They all of a sudden realize = that their units are in a mess, that they're chaotic, they're disorganized,= " said Katie Procter, quality leader at the BC Patient Safety and Qual= ity Council. "So, then they start looking and seeing things that are r= ight in front of their eyes that they can change." <= /p>

= Patients are often taken aback by infections after what may seem like a rou= tine hospital visit. In a = conference call involving the 30 hospitals Monday, patient Mavis Churchill = described how she developed a postoperative MRSA infection at a Toronto-area hospital. "I never want to put people through= that pain again," she said.

Dr. Gardam cautions t= hat the hospital-specific = strategies will not halt the spread of superbugs, but hopefully reduce the number of cases. "Rig= ht now, in most of our facilities, the spread of these things is kind of a = free-for-all," he said. "We can do way better than what we're doi= ng."

***

NEW APPROACHES <= /o:p>

DISINFECTION TAGS

At Toronto East General <= b>Hospital, green tags indica= te which IV poles have been disinfected.

COAT HOOKS

In the general surgery unit at Toronto General Hospital, hooks were put so doctors cou= ld hang up their white coats and don and doff protective gear when visiting= patients in isolation - and patients' families now have a place to hang th= eir coats and bags so they don't spread infection.

 

 

Jennifer Whites= ide

Senior Officer/Agente principale

Research, Job Evaluation and Health &a= mp; Safety Branch/

Service de la recherche, de l’=E9valu= ation des emplois et de la sant=E9-s=E9curit=E9

Canadian Union of Public Em= ployees/SCFP

1375 St. Laurent Blvd., Ottawa, ON K1G 0Z7

(613) 237-1590, x 2= 48