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April 9, 2015

MONTREAL — It may have looked like a party, but Royal Victoria Hospital workers were out on the street Thursday to protest what they call a lack of transparency by the MUHC.

“Members are going to their management, they’re asking questions and they’re saying, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,'” said Mary Ann Davis, MUHC Employee Union Secretary General.

Montreal Gazette Thu Apr 9 2015

With just over two weeks to moving day, hundreds of Royal Victoria Hospital employees say they don't know what jobs they will be doing at the new superhospital. The hospital is not prepared, said Mary Ann Davis, secretary general of the McGill University Hospital Centre Employees' Union, representing 4,800 staff at the MUHC. "And it's totally unnecessary." While no move is easy, she said, such "chaos" so close to moving time is causing staff additional stress and turning lives upside down.

The $1.3-billion superhospital on the Glen site in Notre-Damede-Grâce is to open on April 26. Under a tightly run schedule starting at 7 a.m., an estimated 200 patients will leave the grounds by ambulance or medicar, one every three minutes - until everyone is transferred and the hospital shuts down at about 5 p.m. But the next day's operation remains a great mystery, union officials say. What is in store for a large chunk (an estimated 30 per cent) of the 1,900 workers in housekeeping, clerical, laundry and food services, transportation and other support staffcurrently on the job at the Royal Vic? Many don't even know what department they will be going to, she added. An estimated 200 union members are expected demonstrate at the Royal Victoria Hospital on Thursday at noon to highlight "a lack of organization." It will be the first of three demonstrations held - including a picket line on moving day - unless their concerns are addressed.

Times Colonist (Victoria) Fri Apr 17 2015

The B.C. government came under fire again Thursday for selling valuable Crown land for millions below the appraised value. For the third straight day, the Opposition hammered the Liberals at the B.C. legislature for unloading properties at bargain prices in order to balance their election-year budget in 2013-14. "Well, another day, another fire sale," said NDP Leader John Horgan, before launching into questions about the sale of a property on Panorama Drive in Surrey.

Horgan said documents obtained by the NDP under the freedom of information law show that an appraiser believed "the highest and best use of the lands would be a holding situation, pending rezoning to permit commercial, retail or office development." Instead, the government sold the property for $20.5 million - $3 million below the appraised value of $23.5 million and nearly $7 million below the assessed value of $27.2 million, Horgan said. The deal closed in late March 2014, before the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year.

Vancouver Sun Fri Apr 17 2015

The B.C. government, under pressure to prove it hasn't sold public land for far less than it's worth, says it will compile a full list of all surplus land sales to prove that taxpayers weren't "hosed" on the deals. Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Thursday that his ministry is putting together the figures and will make them public next week. His announcement comes after his government spent several days being hammered by the Opposition New Democrats for selling surplus lands in Coquitlam to a private developer at millions less than the appraised value. "We'll compile it and present it, we're working on that," de Jong said of the list. De Jong said he believes the figures will show the province made several deals for above the assessed and appraised property values. The Opposition said it believes the government was "hosed" on the deals by rushing into a fire sale of Crown land at belowappraised prices to Liberalfriendly developers. The finance minister made the move for disclosure Thursday after another question period in which his government was bombarded by a new property disclosure by the NDP. The latest example is a sixhectare parcel in Surrey near Highway 10 and 152 Street, which was once pegged by government as the site of a hospital, but has b

Toscafund’s £11.5m stake indicates confidence in Circle Holdings despite it pulling out of Hinchingbrooke NHS trust after being marked down on standards

One of Britain’s most aggressive hedge funds has bought a large stake in Circle Holdings, the healthcare company that has pulled out of running the NHS’s only private hospital. Toscafund bought a 12.1% stake in Circle last Thursday, worth nearly £10m at the time, and informed the company on Monday. The stake is now worth £11.5m.

Montreal Gazette Fri Mar 20 2015

The wiring of the new operating rooms at the MUHC's $1.3-billion superhospital is not adequate to run a key piece of surgical equipment, the Montreal Gazette has learned. The hospital is also facing a shortage of trained operating room nurses. MUHC officials are rushing to fix the problems before the superhospital opens on April 26 in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, but the number of elective surgeries could be affected during the first few months - causing increases in wait times, a staffmember who works in the ORs said. "In practical terms, they won't immediately be able to have the same number of planned surgeries," added the source, who agreed to be interviewed on the condition his name not be published because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

"They're going to ramp up the number of cases over several months. It may take longer than they expected strictly because they won't have the personnel available." The move to the superhospital on the site of the former Glen railway yard is a huge undertaking. It involves transferring thousands of patients and stafffrom the Royal Victoria, Montreal Chest and Montreal Children's hospitals to one site. It also involves training employees at the Glen site and calibrating thousands of pieces of medical equipment. The MUHC was supposed to take possession of the new complex from design-build contractor SNC-Lavalin on Sept. 30, but both sides wrangled over cost overruns of $172 million. As a result, the MUHC didn't actually get the keys for the facilities until Nov. 7, causing delays in the activation of equipment.

by Graham H. Cox — last modified Mar 18, 2015

March 29, 2015

The firm is putting up just $25,000 as first prize, and two smaller prizes of $5,000, for the best ideas that will be judged by a panel of health experts and its own representative. The challenge is dubbed “Operation Blue Sky.”

First Nations health advisors say the avant-garde use of crowd-sourcing, referring to the process of soliciting a multitude of micro-ideas using the expansive reach of 21st century communications, is a first for aboriginal healthcare in Canada.

The Telegram (St. John's) Sat Nov 21 2015

Illustration: • Health care workers in St. John's - members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) - held a demonstration outside St. Pat's Mercy Home during the lunch hour Friday to protest the provincial government's plan to privatize long-term care facilities.

Montreal Gazette Mon Nov 23 2015

The McGill University Health Centre used $5.3 million in public funds meant for patient care to cover the deficits of a money-losing real-estate venture, government auditors have found. In 2006, the Royal Victoria Hospital Foundation acquired a commercial office building at 5100 de Maisonneuve Blvd. for $40 million. The MUHC then signed a lease with the foundation to manage the property for 30 years and agreed to assume all risks involved with the building.

But for nearly a decade, much of the rental space in the building remained vacant, while the Royal Vic foundation had to pay offa mortgage that was worth 100 per cent of the purchase price of the property. As a result, the foundation accumulated deficits totalling $5.3 million. And since the MUHC was on the hook legally for any rental losses at 5100 de Maisonneuve, it ended up redirecting $5.3 million from the hospital network's operating budgets - money that is supposed to go to care for patients - to cover the foundation's deficits. "The MUHC ended up footing the bill to cover the shortfall in rental revenues in the building for many consecutive years, financing the operational deficits of a third party (the foundation) to the cumulative tune of $5.3 million," Johanne Beauvais, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette's press attaché, told the Montreal Gazette in an email Friday.

Montreal Gazette Thu Dec 3 2015

It might sound far-fetched, but officials at the McGill University Health Centre now believe that too many tampons being flushed down toilets in one concentrated area of the superhospital is the main cause of the sewage backups that flooded the birthing centre last August.

When it opened on April 26, the superhospital at the Glen site consolidated onto a single floor women's clinical activities that used to be scattered on different floors and buildings of the old Royal Victoria Hospital on University St.

North Bay Nugget Tue Dec 1 2015

The size of your wallet should not determine the quality of health care you receive. That was the message delivered to close to 1,000 protesters calling for the provincial government to free up more money for hospitals in Northern Ontario - particularly the North Bay Regional Health Centre.

"In North Bay, and across Northern Ontario, we are seeing the most severe cuts," said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions. The rally drew supporters from across the province to protest cuts across the province. This year, the North Bay Regional Health Centre announced it is cutting almost 160 positions and closing more than 30 beds in an attempt to stave off a flood of red ink. "Here you are looking at 100 layoffs every year" if the province does not end a freeze on healthcare spending, Silas said.

Montreal Gazette Tue Dec 1 2015

Parents who are being directed to a private children's clinic in Notre-Dame-de-Grâce by the Mc-Gill University Health Centre are upset that they now have to pay a $25 fee for parking in addition to being charged for certain allergy and blood tests.

The MUHC Users' Committee contends that the parking fee at 5100 de Maisonneuve Blvd. constitutes a "barrier to care," given that parents are already being asked to pay fees for tests that used to be covered under medicare at the former location of the Montreal Children's Hospital on Tupper St. The outdoor parking lot is part of a property at that is being managed by the MUHC.

Wednesday 21 October 2015

THE leader of Swindon Borough Council says he is open to discussing ways of helping the Great Western Hospital in its efforts to renegotiate its financially crippling PFI contract. In 2003 the hospital was build under a private finance initiative (PFI) deal, with private contractors paid to carry out the work.

Apr 1, 2016

ST. JOHN’S – CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador is launching a province-wide ad campaign designed to educate members of the public about potentially devastating cuts to public services and jobs.

going to cut all departments, boards and agencies by 30% and lay off thousands of workers.”

April 7, 2016

By Marieke Walsh

The liberal government says it's looking at a public private partnership as one of the options to fund the replacement for the ailing Victoria General Hospital. Global's legislative reporter Marieke Walsh explains.

PREVENT THE PRIVATIZATION OF NOVA SCOTIA'S HOSPITALS