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Govind Rao

Ontario Council of Hospital Unions - defending healthcare in every community - 0 views

www.ochu.on.ca

from heather cupe Ontario private clinics privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 17 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Request for an inquest was denied; Family sues hospital for son's death, Sept. 12 Toronto Star - Mon Sep 16 2013 Family sues hospital for son's death, Sept. 12
  • the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), which represents front-line staff at St. Joseph's in Hamilton where the death occurred, publicly called for an inquest.
  • Mandatory flu shot for health staff misdirected November 2, 2012To save lives, prevent thousands of needless deaths stop provincial policies that cause medical errors, bed sores and superbug ... [Read More]infections
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  • To target health care workers and take away their right to choose by making the flu shot mandatory, is misdirected in the face of recent evidence that 41 per cent of people who get a flu vaccine receive no protection against the flu,” says Michael Hurley the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
  • Mandatory Flu Vaccinations for Health Care Workers CUPE encourages health care workers to get an influenza vaccination if they can safely do so. But making flu shots mandatory for health care workers is a serious intrusion on the freedom and personal autonomy of health care workers that may sometimes have detrimental effects on their own health.Forcing people to take flu shots against their will may well undermine public confidence in vaccination programs, even vaccination programs with an excellent results and high safety standards.
  • Govind Rao on 16 Oct 13
     
    Union calls for halt to move procedures from hospitals to private clinics Submission by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions / CUPE on the Proposed amendment to O. Reg. 264/07 made under the Local Health System Integration Act, 2006 and A Regulation under the Independent Health Facilities Act - Prescribed Persons .  The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions / CUPE represents 30,000 workers in hospitals across the province, including Registered Practical Nurses, service workers, and administrative workers. We are opposed to the government’s plan to move surgical, diagnostic, and other work from public hospitals to private clinics. Our objections can be summarized as falling within seven distinct areas: 1] Quality • Even minor operations can go wrong. We believe that, in contrast with hospitals, it is unlikely private clinics will be able to handle emergencies and that they will likely simply call EMS. Will ambulances be able to move patients to hospitals when things go wrong? (We say “when” advisably, as sooner or later there will be problems.) Indeed, private surgical clinics first came to public attention when a patient died and the paramedics arrived to find a patient with no vital signs. Is it appropriate to establish a system that inherently requires extra time to effectively treat patients who fall into emergency situations? This is particularly troubling as underfunding and restructuring have challenged EMS response times. The government and government officials must be prepared to accept responsibility for such deaths if this plan is approved. 
Govind Rao

Gelinas wants moratorium on private clinics - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/...205028470

from heather ontario private clinics privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 29 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • The Sudbury Star Mon Sep 29 2014
  • New Democrat Health and Long-Term Care critic France Gelinas is calling for a moratorium on the creation of new private health-care clinics and more downloading of hospital services into the community after infectious outbreaks at private clinics in Toronto. The Nickel Belt MPP said she doesn't want the province to allow the establishment of new private clinics until layers of oversight are in place to guarantee proper care and safety for the patients who visit them. Gelinas has been making headlines after a Toronto newspaper broke stories about nine people becoming infected with life-threatening bacterial infections, including meningitis, and three private colonoscopy clinics having hepatitis outbreaks since 2011. The College of Physicians and Surgeons has been providing oversight of the clinics until now and Gelinas said she doesn't object to that. "They add value, it's good work, (but) I want more than this. "I want layers of oversight to make sure everything that goes on in a private clinic is at least of the same level of quality that goes on in hospital and other parts of our health care system."
  • "Transparency not only helps to improve our health-care system, but it provides patients with important information to help them make decisions about their care." Hoskins said improving transparency in health care is one of his top priorities "because I believe patients are entitled to the kind of information that will help them make informed decisions about their care. "Ontarians have my continued commitment we will work with our partners -- including the CPSO, Public Health Ontario and our local public health units -- to identify new ways that we can make information available to patients and improve the transparency of our system." There are several private health-care clinics in Sudbury, but none of them has been cited in the investigation by the Toronto newspaper.
Govind Rao

Island Health lining up deal for 55,000 day procedures; Contract with Calgary firm woul... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|vitc|20150827|227964670

from heather bc private clinics privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 27 Aug 15 - No Cached
  • Times Colonist (Victoria) Thu Aug 27 2015
  • Island Health is hammering out a deal with a Calgary-based company to contract out up to 55,000 publicly funded day procedures to reduce wait-lists over the next three to five years. In coming weeks, the health authority aims to conclude contract negotiations with Surgical Centres Inc., which operates Nanaimo's Seafield Surgical Centre, as well as clinics in New Westminster, Regina, Saskatoon and Calgary.
  • Norm Peters, Island Health's executive director for surgical services, said the two sides are completing details for volumes of surgeries, types of procedures, location and timelines. "We are optimistic that we'll have something going in early 2016," Peters said Wednesday. Once the contract is signed and the space is leased, renovated and equipped, the facility must be accredited by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. In April, Island Health requested proposals for private clinics to provide up to 4,000 day surgeries - such as hip, knee, shoulder and hernia repairs, varicose vein procedures, and gall-bladder removals - each year over a three-to five-year contract for a maximum of 20,000 procedures.
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  • It was also looking for a private clinic to provide up to 4,000 colonoscopies on the south Island and up to 3,000 in the central Island each year over the same period, to a maximum of 35,000. The preferred lease site for the Victoria clinic is believed to be the five-storey professional office building in the new $100-million Eagle Creek Village.
  • The site, at Helmcken Road and Watkiss Way near Victoria General Hospital in View Royal, is being developed by Vancouverbased Omicron. Jessica Ng, Omicron's development manager, confirmed it's in negotiations with the Surgical Centres to lease out 15,000 square feet on the third floor of the professional office space. "Hopefully, they choose us as a preferred location," Ng said. The preferred site must meet the requirements of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. and be near a hospital for the convenience of patients, staff and doctors, Peters said.
  • "That does narrow it down to a few locations," he said. The proponent has confirmed the site would be ready to meet Island Health's timelines, Peters said. The B.C. Health Ministry, as outlined in a document called Future Directions for Surgical Services in B.C., is moving toward shifting appropriate publicly funded day surgeries to private clinics.
  • It is also exploring ways to allow stays of up to three days as part of a long-term strategy to manage wait-lists in the province. Overnight stays would require changes to the Hospital Act. Peters said overnight stays won't be part of this contract. "There is a desire provincially to look at that as a future stage, but that is not part of this initial contract with the preferred proponent." Island Health began awarding contracts for day surgeries to private clinics in 2004.
  • The NDP has said Island Health's call for contracts is an entrenchment of stop-gap measures where use of private clinics to reduce wait times drains funding, doctors and nurses from the public to the private system. "It's a worrisome trend," NDP critic Judy Darcy said when the plan to contract out was announced. She called the contract a short-term fix and just the tip of the iceberg in the move toward long-term privatization.
  • Peters said contracting out day procedures to private clinics saves Island Health millions in capital costs, reduces wait times for day surgeries, and opens up hospital operating room time for more complex surgeries. "This is not the privatization of health-care services," Peters said. "This is a benefit overall to not only those people waiting for surgery but it's a cost-effective way of delivering health care so we can invest in other areas." Of 541,885 publicly funded surgeries in B.C. in 2013-14, 5,503 were done in private facilities. ceharnett@timescolonist.com
Govind Rao

No time for women's health in an age of austerity - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|246199|ntgm|20150831|228230895

from heather Australia gender us abortion

shared by Govind Rao on 01 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • The Globe and Mail Mon Aug 31 2015
  • Byline: ELIZABETH RENZETTI
  • The war waged by political reactionaries and pro-life advocates against Planned Parenthood in the United States is widely known. I wrote about it a couple of weeks ago, and the undercover videos attempting to show the organization in a bad light are only the latest in a longstanding campaign. Planned Parenthood, which provides health care to millions of American women, has been under threat for years. It has always fought back. What is less well known is that Canadian sexual health clinics, which offer many of the same vital services as their U.S. counterpart (but not abortions), are under similar threat. Earlier this month a group of Canadian sexual health clinics got together to talk about the increasingly difficult obstacles they face, from cuts in funding to harassment by anti-choice opponents to donors who are suddenly spooked by the Planned Parenthood controversy south of the border.
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  • Many of the clinics in Canada have long since dropped Planned Parenthood from their names, and even the ones that proudly maintain the title aren't officially tied to the outfit in the United States. But still the stigma remains, and many are struggling. Some have cut services; some have closed, or fear they will have to. "It's getting quite desperate.
  • We're all feeling the bite," said Lauren Dobson-Hughes, president of Planned Parenthood Ottawa, which recently put out an urgent appeal to its supporters for funds. Planned Parenthood Ottawa, which provided counselling and sex education to 8,500 clients last year (not to mention distributing 72,000 free condoms) has seen its government support slashed by 10 per cent in each of the past few years. The United Way in Ottawa cut all its funding a few years ago. Other grant applications have gone unanswered, and donors are spooked by the very words "sexual health."
  • According to Planned Parenthood Ottawa, there has been a concerted effort by anti-choice advocates to badger agencies and donors who might otherwise provide financial support to clinics (even though they don't provide abortion services). As well, there is just a general leeriness around the subject of sex education - witness the vehement opposition to Ontario's new curriculum. Donors are risk averse in tough times. "For some donors, it's just easier to support something [such as] a cancer charity," said Ms. DobsonHughes. The result of dwindling funding is that the people at greatest risk suffer. One client, a pregnant sexual assault survivor in an abusive relationship, recently had to be turned away from the Ottawa clinic because there were no counsellors to see her.
  • This squeamishness may seem difficult to believe in 2015, but other sexual-health providers - the ones who give out free condoms, counsel nervous teens and pregnant women and offer screening tests for people who might not have a doctor - confirm that it's a dire time. In April, Health Initiatives for Youth Hamilton, the country's oldest birthcontrol clinic, had to shut its doors after it lost its local government funding. It had been running for 85 years.
  • In March of last year, it looked as if the doors of Victoria's Island Sexual Health Society would also shut when it faced a funding crisis. After a public appeal, it received a small boost from the province's health coffers. "The immediate threat is over, but we had to lay off staff and it's still a struggle," said Bobbi Turner, who's been the director of Island Sexual Health for 21 years.
  • Ms. Turner's clinic had 27,000 patient visits last year and provided sexual education for thousands of students. Like similar outfits, it offers education and pregnancy counselling and clinical services such as STI testing and cancer screening. One of the problems in Victoria, she said, is the lack of family doctors: "If we close, where are these people supposed to go?" Now the clinic is exploring "different revenue streams," including selling a line of sex toys. It's not exactly a viable alternative to stable, year-on-year funding, but desperate times calls for innovative measures.
  • In a tight-fisted world, it seems that women's health services - even with their long-term, quantifiable benefits - are the first and easiest things to cut. "Funding dollars are getting smaller and smaller," Ms. Turner said.
  • "It's the same old story. Prevention gets bumped to the bottom of the list, and it's not until we're about to close our doors that people take notice."
Govind Rao

Funds should be better invested in Canada's public health care system - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|245142|bcvi|20150915|229391583

from heather bc privatization private clinics

shared by Govind Rao on 16 Sep 15 - No Cached
  • Campbell River Mirror Tue Sep 15 2015
  • Our provincial government is seeking to change the BC Health Act to permit patient stays of up to three nights in private, for profit, surgery clinics so their plan into the future is to embrace private, for profit, surgery clinics. In the provincial government's own report it states the reason why our public hospital operating rooms sit idle quite often is due to lack of funding. The government and Island Health think it is okay to contract out these surgeries because the surgeries are still being publicly funded but our taxpayer dollars will be spending more for the profit margin.
  • It is extremely concerning that our provincial government is contracting up to 55,000 surgeries to a private, for profit, surgery clinic which is yet to be built. If this company is locating in Victoria they must have received assurance for long term commitments to enable them to locate there permanently. Surgical Centres Ltd. is "based" in Calgary, they have two private, for profit, surgery clinics in Calgary, two in B.C., two in Saskatchewan. Are the owners American?
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  • Dr. Brendon Carr (president and CEO of Island Health) when asked at the Island Health Board meeting here in June stated that there will be a premium in cost for the surgeries at the private clinic. We know private, for profit, health care is more expensive. He said they have the information and would provide it, but when I wrote and asked what the difference in cost for the taxpayers between surgeries in public or private, for profit, operating rooms, Mr. Peters declined to answer the question.
  • It is extremely concerning that our provincial government is contracting up to 55,000 surgeries to a private surgery clinic Re: Deal with private contractor could reduce surgery wait times - J.R. Rardon. The above noted article was in the Aug. 26, Campbell River Mirror. Reading the headline I have to ask "but at what cost?"
  • I pointed out to Dr. Carr that we have a shortage of doctors in Canada and he agreed. He said it would be the same doctors doing the surgeries in the private, for profit, surgery clinics. I asked how they can usurp our doctors into the private system without straining our public system more. He just said they will be watching it. That doesn't bode well for our public operating rooms. I fear that our provincial government is seriously undermining our position in defending the Dr. Brian Day court case on behalf of all British Columbians. At the very least it looks like a huge conflict of interest when they are seeking to contract an enormous number of surgeries to private clinics.
  • Our provincial and federal governments seem determined to starve the public health care system in favour of private, for profit, health care. They have let the surgery wait lists increase substantially. Our federal government refused to renegotiate the Canada Health Accord and brought in a new funding formula. They are telling us they are "increasing"  funding of the transfer payments to the provinces by three per cent, tied to the cost of living. Currently they are paying six per cent annually so this actually is a massive cut to the provinces for public health care in the amount of $36 billion over the next 10 years. With the federal government's cuts to health care funding, the share of federal CHT cash payments in provincial-territorial health spending will decrease substantially from 20.4 per cent in 2010-11 to less than 12 per cent over the next 25 years. This, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, will bring the level of federal cash support for health care to historical lows. National Medicare was implemented across Canada by provinces and territories on the understanding that the federal government would contribute roughly 50 percent of the spending on Medicare.
  • Canadians are vehemently opposed to private health care whether it is using our public tax dollars or not. Canadians should not have to suffer and wait a long time for surgery. Funds would be far better invested in the public health care system which is being starved by our governments. It is very difficult for Canadians to see our medicare in serious jeopardy. The Canadian Medical Assoc., Canadian Doctors for Medicare, Canadian Health Coalition, Council of Canadians, B.C. Health Coalition, HEU, CUPE, Citizens for Quality Health Care and many others are united to protect, strengthen and expand our public health care. Please check out their websites and get more information. Please vote in the next two elections and vote for health care for the benefit of all Canadians. Lois Jarvis Citizens for Quality Health Care Campbell River
Govind Rao

Patient-rights group demands say in changes to medical fees; No one on government commi... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|mtgz|20150619|223082131

from heather Quebec private clinics privatization doctors primary care

shared by Govind Rao on 23 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • Montreal Gazette Fri Jun 19 2015
  • Patients are being frozen out of the Quebec government's plans to approve new medical fees that doctors will be able to levy in private clinics, a patient-rights association charged Thursday. The Alliance des patients pour la santé, representing 1.5 million Quebecers with chronic illnesses, is demanding that it be included in a government committee that will determine which so-called accessory fees will be approved. The committee is to include representatives from the Health Department, the medical federations and an independent expert - but not patient advocates.
  • "We deplore the absence of patients in this decision-making process," said Michel Roy, an association spokesperson. "The perspective of patients' needs to be taken into account in this whole debate, and that hasn't happened so far." Joanne Beauvais, Health Minister Gaétan Barrette's press attaché, was unavailable to comment on the alliance's request.
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  • However, Barrette issued a statement Thursday saying that the goal of his proposed amendment to the medicare law is to end the "abuse" of incidental fees that some private clinics have been billing patients. In some cases, patients have been charged almost $200 for eye drops. But Barrette will also make it possible for some private clinics to charge fees that would now be considered illegal. "We believe that the amendment that will be debated ... constitutes a balance between the protection of the public against excessive fees and the preservation of services that are provided in private clinics," Barrette said in the statement. "The clinics that offer these services have always been part of the health and social services (network), and it would be irresponsible on our part to act in such a way that could lead to their closing."
  • But Roy countered that accessory fees are a form of two-tier medicine, allowing some patients with private insurance to bypass lengthy waits in the public system by going to private clinics. He noted that the government already subsidizes many private clinics, and there is no reason for patients to be charged extra. François Loubert, co-president of the Association des cliniques médicales du Québec, acknowledged that doctors who bill the medicare board for certain procedures in a private clinic do get paid more than if they carried out the same medical act in a hospital. He cited as an example a $40 fee for a type of consultation that a doctor in private practice can bill the Régie de l'assurancemaladie du Québec. For the same consultation in a hospital, the doctor could bill RAMQ only $25.
Govind Rao

Mexican government closes private clinic where woman died on sidewalk after being denie... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|wcpa|20150106|211936619

from heather Mexico private clinics safety quality

shared by Govind Rao on 07 Jan 15 - No Cached
  • Canadian Press Tue Jan 6 2015
  • MEXICO CITY - Mexican authorities ordered the closure of a private clinic where a woman died on the sidewalk after being denied care. A Health Department commission said Tuesday that it closed the "Dolores Sanz" clinic in Mexico City for multiple violations of hospital codes. A diabetic woman died in a wheelchair outside the clinic over the weekend. Relatives told local media they took her to the clinic for dialysis, but clinic employees said she was too sick to treat and suggested they take her to a full-fledged hospital. The woman died outside. The number of violations found at the clinic raised the question of why it had been allowed to operate in the first place. It had no valid operating license and expired medications were found on the premises. Copyright © 2015 The Canadian Press
Govind Rao

Warning flags about excessive wait times, privatization among issues identified by Audi... - 1 views

www.web.net/ohc

ltc waits private clinics coalition ag Ontario

shared by Govind Rao on 13 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • The Auditor General found wait times for long-term care that are extraordinary. Crisis clients are waiting more than three months for placement and wait times have tripled.
  • In Ontario’s privatized clinics (Independent Health Facilities) the Auditor found inadequate monitoring, poor inspections, a lack of financial oversight and inequitable access to care.
  • Ontario’s Wynne Government Plans to Bring In Private Clinics: Threatens Non-Profit Community Hospital Care The Ontario government plans to introduce private specialty clinics to take the place of local community hospitals’ services. The government’s proposal would bring in legal regulations under the Independent Health Facilities Act and the Local Health System Integration Act to usher in private clinics and shut down services in community hospitals. Ontario’s Auditor General reported in 2012 that more than 97% of the private clinics under the Independent Health Facilities Act are private for-profit corporations. The Ontario Health Coalition warned about the costs and consequences of private clinics for patient care in a press conference at Queen’s Park today. In addition to the danger of for-profit privatization, coalition director Natalie Mehra raised concerns about poorer access to care and destabilization of local community hospitals.
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  • The Auditor General found wait times for long-term care that are extraordinary. Crisis clients are waiting more than three months for placement and wait times have tripled.
  • In Ontario’s privatized clinics (Independent Health Facilities) the Auditor found inadequate monitoring, poor inspections, a lack of financial oversight and inequitable access to care.
Heather Farrow

[Friends of Medicare urge provincial government to legislate against private donor-paid... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|245142|prpw|20160923|256518363

Alberta coalition cbs private clinics privatization

shared by Heather Farrow on 20 Sep 16 - No Cached
  • Prairie Post West Fri Sep 23 2016
  • Friends of Medicare urge provincial government to legislate against private donor-paid plasma collection By Rose Sanchez Southern Alberta Officials with the Friends of Medicare and BloodWatch.org were on a five-city tour of Alberta last week, in an effort to raise awareness about private, for-profit donor-paid plasma collection in the country. Both organizations would like to see a voluntary plasma collection system in Canada done through Canadian Blood Services, and provincial and territorial governments pass legislation to ensure private, for-profit donor-paid plasma "brokers" can't set up shop. About 40 people were in attendance at the Lethbridge stop on Sept. 12, while only a half dozen made it out to the Medicine Hat meeting Sept. 13. "It's sad that we have to have this discussion after what we've learned from the tainted blood scandal of the 1980s. We need to remind Canadians the importance of what happened back then," said Sandra Azocar, executive director of the Friends of Medicare (FOM). "Blood and plasma collection must remain voluntary and public and not be contracted out to anyone else."
  • Earlier this year, officials with FOM caught wind that Canadian Plasma Resources (CPR) was exploring the possibility of opening private, for-profit donor-paid plasma clinics in Alberta. CPR attempted to open a clinic in Ontario a few years ago, until the provincial government there, after a strong public lobby, introduced legislation to stop it from setting up shop. Friends of Medicare officials took their concerns about this to the provincial health minister. "We've been asking since that initial meeting, for (the provincial government) to put in legislation banning the practice for paid-for-plasma clinics," said Azocar. "We all know (free) markets work well, but it does not work well in health-care ... Friends of Medicare supports a publically-regulated, not-for-profit voluntary blood collection system in Canada." Azocar said private for-profit, donor-paid plasma collection needs to be banned in provincial law across Canada, as it has already been in both Ontario and Quebec.
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  • Kat Lanteigne, executive director for BloodWatch.org and writer of the play Tainted based on three-years of research about the tainted blood scandal, travelled to Alberta to help spread the message about concerns about private, donor-paid plasma collection. Lanteigne said these types of clinics had started to show up in Ontario in the last few years. "This is a big-pharma push," she said. "If they can build a clinic and get a licence from Health Canada then they can open without the province's permission." She said that the private sale and collection of blood and plasma introduces risk into the system. She also dispelled another myth that plasma is being imported into the country. She said that is not the case, as about 70 per cent of the drugs produced from plasma is what is being imported. When successful in the fight to get Ontario to legislate against private, donor-paid plasma collection at the end of 2014, and because Quebec has a similar law, Lanteigne said they made the mistake of thinking that because the largest provinces in Canada had done this, the rest of the provinces would follow suit.
  • Instead, as part of one of her first decisions, the new federal Liberal Health Minister approved CPR opening a clinic in Saskatchewan. Lanteigne says the Saskatchewan government, led by Premier Brad Wall, then approved the private, donor-paid plasma collection business to open in Saskatoon, "in between a pawn shop and a pay-day loan company." "This collection facility is a blood broker. They are literally a middle man Ñ a source to get profits. "We're asking the provinces and territories to pass voluntary blood donation acts which adds blood and plasma to their existing human tissue acts ..." Lanteigne explained. There is a lot of information on the BloodWatch.org website about the issue, including an informative timeline. The organization also has a Heart Watch rating system. Alberta currently has three hearts and Lanteigne would like to see that increase to five. "Saskatchewan has broken our hearts," she adds.
  • Kim Storebo, CUPE Local 46 president who works with Canadian Blood Services (CBS), also spoke at the event. She said CUPE supports a public, voluntary-based blood system in Canada, adding CBS needs to increase the number of its own plasma collection sites. The organization has been slowly closing locations since 2012. "There is no evidence the collection of plasma from paid donors will create self-sufficiency," she said. "Under no circumstances should there be payment of blood plasma donors with cash or cash-in-kind equivalents." The union wants to see blood and plasma collection remain the sole responsibility of Canadian Blood Services and for the organization to expand its plasma collection and its work hours and ensure stable and consistent hours for its employees. As part of the wrap-up of the Alberta tour officials with FOM, BloodWatch.org and CUPE presented an online SumOfUs petition with more than 15,000 signatures to provincial health minister Sarah Hoffman asking for all provincial governments to "implement legislation that ensures no for-profit, donor-paid blood plasma collection clinics are allowed to operate in Canada." Azocar assured those at the meetings that Friends of Medicare would continue to lobby the Alberta government this fall and next spring during the Legislature sittings.
Cheryl Stadnichuk

Canadian Blood Services: A bloody shame | rankandfile.ca - 1 views

rankandfile.ca/...s-and-blood-safety-in-jeopardy

shared by Cheryl Stadnichuk on 20 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • Eight PEI blood collection workers, all women, all part timers, have been on strike for close to eight months now. As Rankandfile reported in January, the women want a guaranteed minimum number of hours each week. That would allow them to qualify for benefits, and bring a bit of predictability into their daily lives. Their employer, Canadian Blood Services (CBS), isn’t budging. CBS is a not-for-profit, charitable organization operating everywhere in Canada except Quebec. Its sole mission is to manage the blood supply for Canadians. Its budget of roughly $1 billion is mostly provincial money.
  • No matter what happens, the significance of the strike extends well beyond PEI.  The Charlottetown workers are fighting the same issues CBS workers Canada-wide are facing. Not just workers, generous donors anywhere are also encountering obstacles when looking to donate blood. Some argue that CBS is in such a rush to cut costs that it even puts the safety of our blood supply in jeopardy.
  • CBS likes its workers part time and precarious, not just in PEI but anywhere in Canada. That was the consensus when unions representing CBS workers all across Canada met in Vancouver last fall, Mike Davidson tells Rankandfile.  Davidson is the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) national representative for three CBS Locals in New Brunswick. “If CBS had it their way, their clinics would  be all staffed by volunteers, and if they couldn’t have that, they’d settle for an entirely casual workforce,” says Davidson. Two of the New Brunswick locals have a few part-timers with guaranteed hours, and it has been an ongoing struggle to keep it that way, Davidson says.  In all of the three New Brunswick locals there are only three full-time unionized employees. “There is no stability. (CBS) doesn’t want stability,” says Davidson. “Meanwhile, they complain about a lack of commitment by the workers.
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  • Davidson also has an idea where to find the money. “We always tell them to look at their executives wages. It’s definitely a top heavy bloated organization.” Indeed, CBS CEO Dr. Graham Sher, earned more than $800 thousand last year. An astounding nine Vice Presidents together made another cool $3.2 million.
  • It’s one thing to want to keep your workers poor and precarious. Many companies do it. But donors? “These days donors probably have more complaints about scheduling and clinic times than employees do.” That’s what Ron Stockton told us when we first talked to him in January of this year. Stockton is the  NSUPE business agent for the PEI local now on strike. “With CBS it is never about delivering service, it is always about getting the biggest bang for your buck,” Stockton says. A 2015 press release issued by CBS announced the Canada-wide closure of three permanent clinics, the replacement of a permanent clinic with a mobile one, pulling mobile clinics from 16 communities, and “adjusting clinic schedules across the country.” “CBS is being transformed into a business, as opposed to a public service or a humanitarian organization. These days it’s all about automation and squeezing efficiencies out of donors and workers,” Stockton concludes.
  • “When you walk into the clinic you register by inserting your health card into some kind of ATM machine, then you have your blood taken by an employee who is too rushed to talk to you, then you schedule your next appointment at another machine. “Having  been a donor, I can tell you donors want to see people,” Stockton says. “I am old enough to remember the days when staff taking your blood had time to talk to you. “Doesn’t happen anymore, to CBS you are a piece of meat giving blood, you could be a bag.”
  • Lately CBS has been in the news because of its endorsement of Canadian Plasma Resources, a private for-profit company that wants to pay for plasma donations.  The Saskatchewan company is eying Nova Scotia and New Brunswick for expansion. Organizations such as Bloodwatch and public healthcare advocates in the Maritimes have strongly opposed the introduction of private for-profit clinics while we have an effective not-for-profit blood service already in place. Paying for donations is asking for trouble, they believe. But concerns around the quality of our blood supply go deeper. “Workers in our locals fear for the safety of this blood system altogether,” Davidson warns. “CBS is more concerned about cost savings than about the safety of the blood supply. They have  pared the organization down so much that all resilience and safety is removed, and we are going right back to 1997,” Davidson says.
  • “CBS tries to make its operation as lean as possible,” he says. “We cautioned them to make sure that there are no system failures such as the Krever enquiry identified. But they are continually watering it down. It’s all about dollars and cents for them.” When front line CBS workers are concerned about safety, then provincial Health ministers who fund CBS to the tune of $1 billion per year should listen, says Davidson. “We call upon the responsible ministers to step up and pay attention. We need to raise the alarm that things are not good.”
  • Cheryl Stadnichuk on 20 Apr 16
     
    Canadian Blood Services
Cheryl Stadnichuk

Review gives good marks to surgical speed-up | Regina Leader-Post - 1 views

leaderpost.com/...ood-marks-to-surgical-speed-up

private clinics SK wait times

shared by Cheryl Stadnichuk on 27 Apr 16 - No Cached
  • Adjust Comment Print Janice MacKinnon remembers NDP-leaning friends who were aghast at the prospect of private surgical clinics in the home of medicare — until they actually used them. The clinics worked and they’ve cut Saskatchewan’s surgical wait times from the longest in the country to the shortest, said MacKinnon, who gave the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative a positive review in a Fraser Institute study released Tuesday.
  • MacKinnon said there were other important elements, like a Supreme Court decision that told governments, “if you have a monopoly on the service, you have to provide it in a timely way.” As well, the government had just received Tony Dagnone’s “Patient First” report that, as she interpreted it, said health care should be done for the benefit of patients, not for others in the system — like doctors, nurses, hospital staff, and their unions. She said the government followed up by bringing into the initiative working groups of physicians, nurses and hospital managers, all encouraged to focus on speeding up the process for patients.
  • MacKinnon contrasted this with an attempt at cutting wait times in the 1990s that went nowhere because health-care unions told the public that changes wouldn’t work. The surgical initiative, one the other hand, went over the unions’ heads to the public itself. Health Minister Duncan Duncan acknowledged Tuesday wait times have lengthened in recent months, particularly in the Regina and Saskatoon health regions, and reflecting increased demand. “We’ll be mindful of that in this fiscal year, when the budget comes out,” he said, adding “we don’t want to lose the ground that we did gain.”
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  • MacKinnon also challenged two frequent criticisms of private clinics: that they’d cream off the easiest surgeries and steal the best staff. Instead, she says surgeries were assigned by health regions and clinics hired retired nurses and nurse practitioners who liked the better hours and low-hassle atmosphere. She noted that surgeries — which covered only an array of specialties, not a complete list of surgeries — came in 26 per cent cheaper than in hospitals. “I think it was extremely well done.” Only in Canada, she said, would there be any fuss over who owns the clinics providing service in a single-payer system, MacKinnon said.
  • Cheryl Stadnichuk on 27 Apr 16
     
    Former SK NDP Finance Minister Janice MacKinnon is now shilling for the Fraser Institute promoting private clinics to reduce surgical wait times. The root problem of wait times if the structure and funding of Medicare, she says.
Irene Jansen

Anger grows as letters reach clinic's patients - 0 views

www.ottawacitizen.com/...story.html

private clinics

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • thousands of Ottawa-area residents learn about improperly sterilized instruments at Farazli’s clinic
  • That changed in 2010 when, after years of lobbying by endoscopists themselves, revised provincial laws finally outlined safety standards. It also allowed the body that regulates the medical profession to inspect Ontario’s 270 private surgical clinics, which perform procedures ranging from endoscopies to liposuction and plastic surgery
  • In May, Farazli’s clinic failed an inspection by the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. The inspection found the clinic’s equipment, used to conduct gastroscopies and colonoscopies, was not always appropriately cleaned between tests.
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  • The resulting infection scare has laid bare some dirty truths underlying patient assumptions about private clinics.
  • Brohman, who had at least one gastroscopy at the clinic, said she walked in assuming it was regulated like a hospital.
  • Donna Davis, co-chairwoman of Patients for Patient Safety Canada
  • “Every time something like this comes to light and we learn from them, it just makes the care safer. It makes the clinics, physicians and organizations take a second look and say, ‘How can we improve?’”Others say the Ontario college’s inspections of all private surgical clinics have the potential to restore a measure of public faith in such facilities.
Irene Jansen

Ottawa clinic infection scare a 'wake-up call' - Canada - CBC News - 0 views

www.cbc.ca/...y-ottawa-health-infection.html

private clinics

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • Quality control concerns were raised this week when Ottawa Public Health announced that about 6,800 people have been sent registered letters informing them a “non-hospital” clinic run by Dr. Christiane Farazli didn't always follow infection prevention and cleaning protocols for endoscopic equipment.
  • Canada's medicare system is increasingly sharing patient care with privately operated clinics, due to factors including hospital funding shortfalls, efforts to reduce wait times and new screening guidelines.
  • Provincially monitored hospitals must adhere to certain quality-care standards and are regularly inspected, but private clinics generally aren't subject to the same stringent sanitation and infection-control monitoring.
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  • To put all of that in place requires that one looks at this as a system issue."
  • "If you're a doctor who is about to strike out on your own and open a new clinic, while you're busy picking out your office furniture, remember there's a huge chunk of [opening a clinic] — and that is equipment reprocessing … and that is the piece that can slip through the cracks," says Gardam.
  • Such high-profile failures to meet proper patient-care standards can undermine public confidence in the health-care system, notes Hugh MacLeod, CEO of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.
  • not every province oversees private clinics
  • Pamela Fralick, president and CEO of the Canadian Healthcare Association
  • Fralick, who is part of a multi-stakeholder group discussing issues of mutual concern in the health-care system, says "there's a lack of integration in this country. When you have so many stakeholders and official bodies involved
  • "As we increasingly farm out various procedures to private-sector organizations, we have to look at if they are under the same standards," she says.
  • "I would say things have gotten better and out of crisis comes opportunity," Fralick adds.
Irene Jansen

Calgary knee clinic delivers quicker, cheaper elite-level care - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article2264093

private clinics alberta

shared by Irene Jansen on 23 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • An interim report being released on Thursday shows that since it opened in January, the University of Calgary Sport Medicine Centre’s acute knee injury clinic has enabled 966 patients to get direct access to elite-level care, and reduced wait times and unnecessary tests.
  • AKIC’s founder, Nick Mohtadi, an orthopedic surgeon and former head physician for the NHL’s Calgary Flames
  • To access the clinic, which received $255,000 from Alberta Health Services for a 12-month trial, a patient simply fills out an online questionnaire, available at www.sportmed.ucalgary.ca/akic, as soon as they are injured instead of going to a hospital emergency
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  • The initial evaluation is done by one of three “non-physician experts,” which is the clinic’s name for the trained, certified athletic therapists
  • The 208 patients who required an orthopedic surgeon were operated on within four months of diagnosis, five months earlier than patients outside of the clinic
  • reduction in the need for MRIs since the program began to 7.5 per cent from 30 per cent
  • the Bone and Joint Clinical Network, which is overseeing the project on behalf of AHS
  • This clinic has the ability to provide timely diagnosis and treatment for up to 200 patients a month
  • it’s only being used by an average of 95 patients a month
  • sees it being applied effectively to other types of musculoskeletal injuries
Govind Rao

Let the public know - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|tost|20140923|204629085

from heather private clinics privatization ontario safety

shared by Govind Rao on 23 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Toronto Star Tue Sep 23 2014
  • People's lives were at stake, never mind their health. But you wouldn't know it by the outrageously secretive attitude exhibited by both Toronto Public Health and the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario. Their lack of reporting and openness about a private clinic where a bacterial outbreak made several patients severely ill is breathtaking. The Star's Theresa Boylestory has just reported on the severe health effects two patients now live with after they received spinal injections at the Rothbart Centre for Pain Care in North York. Anne Levac's and Tracey Martin's disabilities were caused by permanent nerve damage from bacterial infections that developed in their spines after the procedures. The disabilities have left them both incontinent and in severe pain. In all, Boyle's investigation found that nine patients were infected with bacteria at the clinic between August and November 2012.
  • But despite the threat to patients' health, in a web of secrecy that is mind-boggling when lives are at stake, the following occurred: The clinic's doctors did not inform patients about the outbreak, as the College of Physicians requires. Toronto Public Health did not post its inspection results online so doctors could assess whether they should recommend the clinic to patients, never mind so the patients themselves could be fully informed. Toronto Public Health went so far as to make Levac go through an expensive, complicated freedom of information request in an attempt to find out she had been infected at the clinic. Since the outbreak, the college posted online only that the clinic passed three inspections "with conditions" and a fourth without. It did not say there had been an outbreak, that nine patients became ill or that there were 170 inspection-control deficiencies at the clinic. Ironically, Toronto Public Health posts the results of inspection results online for restaurants, tattoo parlours and nail salons. But it does not feel it necessary to post results for clinics. The lack of regard for patients from all levels involved in this health care disaster is symptomatic of what can only be considered a minefield of secrecy in Canada's health care system, in general, that starts at the top with Health Canada, as recent Star investigations have demonstrated. Only by putting patients' interests first and foremost and being as transparent as possible can our health agencies protect consumers. Nothing less should be acceptable.
Govind Rao

B.C. wasting cash on private-care fight - Infomart - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|vapr|20150614|222709390

from heather Day private clinics privatization bc court

shared by Govind Rao on 23 Jun 15 - No Cached
  • The Province Sun Jun 14 2015
  • Dr. Patrick McGeer, a distinguished neurology researcher at the University of B.C. and a former Olympian, served as an MLA from 1962 to 1986, the last 10 years as a cabinet minister. mcgeerpl@mail.ubc.ca mcgeerandassociates.ca The B.C. government is wasting your tax money on a court battle that has now been going on for more than six years. Initially, the government accused the Cambie Surgery Centre of violating B.C.'s Medicare Protection Act. The clinic launched a counter suit, joined later by six patients, on the grounds that the B.C. legislation violated the Charter of Rights. A defeat for the provincial government seems to be a certainty. The Supreme Court of Canada has already ruled in Chaoulli v Quebec that patients are "suffering and dying on wait lists" and that "access to a wait list is not access to care."
  • The court decided that if you are a Quebecer, you are protected under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Their reasoning has certainly come true since in the B.C. case, two of the original four plaintiffs have already died and a third is paralyzed for life. The province is ignoring the Supreme Court of Canada, apparently hoping its ruling will only apply in Quebec. The issue is whether the constitution allows you to spend your own money on your own health care and whether private clinics should be allowed to provide that care. The B.C. government says, no, you must join a queue for treatment. Queues are a euphemism for rationing. Canada is the only country in the world that has ever imposed such a system.
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  • A charade is being played out in the courts of British Columbia that should be promptly terminated. The person to blame for failing to do so is Premier Christy Clark. She can easily settle the case. The government, a week before the case was finally going to be heard, "suddenly discovered" that it had about 300,000 documents that were important to its case. They successfully obtained a postponement. The "sudden discovery" may set an all-time record for introducing irrelevancies to a court case in order to obscure the issues and prolong the proceedings. And now the case has taken a bizarre twist. The province has completely undercut its own defence by announcing a $10-million plan to enlist private clinics to deal with the backlog of cases waiting for the kind of urgent treatment that the Cambie Surgery Centre has been providing for years.
  • This charade can easily be ended in a day. Clark can drop her case against the centre and alter regulations in the Medicare Protection Act to allow for private clinics. Then rationing will end. When Clark was a talk-show host, getting feedback from her listeners, she left the impression of being an enthusiastic advocate of private clinics. Now, after accepting advice from bureaucrats, other ministers and ideologues, she has become a defender of the government monopoly with its infamous queues. There is a further irony to this case. While condemning as queue jumpers those who opted for private clinics to provide urgent treatment for them, the government has all along been choosing its own queue jumpers. These are often workers' compensation cases where the government has found it cheaper to authorize and pay for their private-clinic treatment than to continue paying their layoff benefits. Before Medicare was introduced, there was no such thing as rationing. Cases were never turned away.
  • When I was an intern in the 1950s, the surgical theatres were run until the last case was finished. Later, as a B.C. MLA, I had long discussions with MPs Tommy Douglas and Lester Pearson about the effects of introducing Medicare as a national program. It could not have been further from their minds that it might lead to rationing. Their idea was to provide a floor so that all Canadians would have access to care. It was 20 years later that the Canada Health Act was introduced, leading to the infamous queues.
  • The current system of rationing will grow. It cannot be sustained and will eventually be abandoned. In future, judgments will be made in the court of public opinion. After this dark period has ended, historians are bound to judge it harshly - along with all those who promoted its continuing existence. © 2015 Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Illustration: • Jenelle Schneider, PNG Files / Dr. Brian Day and Cambie Surgery Centre will win a private medical court case with the province, predicts Dr. Patrick McGeer.
Govind Rao

Problems at clinics should prompt rethink on competitions for hospital services :: Long... - 1 views

www.longwoods.com/...23939

from heather ontario private clinics privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 22 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • Essays October 2014
  • Problems at clinics should prompt rethink on competitions for hospital services Rick Janson
  • July 8 the Ontario Health Coalition brought more than 80,000 signed cards to the Ontario legislature opposing the transfer of clinical services from hospitals to private clinics. (Photo courtesy the Ontario Health Coalition)
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  • The media is applauding Health Minister Dr. Eric Hoskins this week for promising greater transparency around private clinic inspections that had previously been kept secret by Toronto Public Health and The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (TCPSO).
  • They may have learned from the Ottawa Hospital’s ill-timed decision early in 2013 to divest 5,000 endoscopies to the private sector at the same time the TCPSO was making public the list of clinics that failed inspection public – including one Ottawa endoscopy clinic that may have exposed patients to HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C from equipment that may not have been properly sterilized.
Govind Rao

Liberals' failed health care privatization experiment puts patients at risk: NDP MPP Fi... - 0 views

www.northumberlandview.ca/index.php

from heather privatization Ontario private clinics

shared by Govind Rao on 20 Feb 15 - No Cached
  • Feb 04, 2015
  • WATERLOO— NDP MPP Catherine Fife said it’s completely unacceptable that patients at a private clinic in Kitchener were infected with hepatitis C and called on the Liberal government to put patients’ safety first.    “These infections were preventable, yet under the Liberals, crucial procedures are being moved out of hospitals and into private clinics, without proper oversight. The result, for some patients, is devastating.” said Fife. "People turn to the healthcare system to help them get better, not make them more sick."
  • Waterloo Region Public Health reports five patients treated at the Tri-City Colonoscopy Clinic in Kitchener were infected with hepatitis C. “One in seven private clinics is failing to comply with safety standards,” said Fife. “It’s time to stop the Liberals’ failed privatization experiment until they can put Ontarians’ safety first.” 
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  • Across Ontario, 44 clinics have fallen short of basic standards in just three years, according to CPSO inspections. Meanwhile, the number of private clinics has skyrocketed by 31 percent since 2010 under this Liberal government. At least 20 patients in Ontario have contracted serious infections at these private health clinics.
Govind Rao

55,000 surgeries might go private; Island Health asks for clinics to do an array of ope... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|vitc|20150410|218199589

from heather bc private clinics privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 13 Apr 15 - No Cached
  • Times Colonist (Victoria) Fri Apr 10 2015
  • Island Health wants to farm out up to 55,000 day surgeries over five years to private clinics, the largest and longest contract yet to reduce wait times and ease pressure on hospitals. On Thursday, Island Health posted a request for proposals for private clinics to provide up to 4,000 day surgeries - everything from hip-andknee surgeries to hernia repairs and gall-bladder removals - each year over a three-to five-year contract for a maximum of 20,000 procedures. Island Health is also looking for a private clinic or clinics to provide up to 4,000 endoscopic procedures - colonoscopies - on the south Island and up to 3,000 endoscopies in the central Island each year over the same period for a maximum of 35,000. The contract could go to one clinic or two clinics, depending on the bids.
Govind Rao

Health care 'grey zone' stings Quebec patients; Pointe-Saint-Charles clinic's registry ... - 0 views

www.fpinfomart.ca/doc/doc_display.php?key=pr|242663|mtgz|20151116|233766516

from heather quebec private clinics privatization

shared by Govind Rao on 16 Nov 15 - No Cached
  • Montreal Gazette Mon Nov 16 2015
  • When François Richard worried about an infection in his mouth, his doctor suggested he might have throat cancer. Richard said his physician outlined two choices: pay $250 up front for a quick test on the spot at the clinic or wait three months for a hospital appointment. Scared for his life, the Montrealer paid for the laboratory test immediately. Richard is one of 527 Quebec patients who responded to the Pointe-Saint-Charles community health clinic's registry documenting hidden charges billed for care, medication and services - $600 for eye drops, $30 for filling out a form, $25 for a five-minute phone consultation or renewing a prescription, and $135 for an ultrasound at a clinic that served as an overflow for a hospital.
  • It's Quebec's first public registry of its kind of fees billed for medical services, and it confirms extra or shady billing threatens access to medical services and care. The Pointe-Saint-Charles clinic launched the registry last year after it became clear that billing patients directly isn't a marginal practice. It's widespread among family physicians and specialists.
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  • According to the registry, 527 patients were billed a total of $40,775 between Feb. 15 and Aug. 2015. Respondents noted feeling indignant about the injustice of having to pay amounts they considered exorbitant for medical care. Some said they couldn't afford to pay - they needed the money for groceries or rent. User fees for insured medical services covered by the provincial health insurance board are illegal. But there's a grey zone, and for years many physicians and clinics have quietly been applying extra, arbitrary or excessive fees for exams and medications covered in hospitals. Led by the clinic's Comité de lutte en santé, the registry also showed that rates for medical services levied on patients varied among professionals, the clinic's co-ordinator Luc Leblanc said Sunday.
  • "It's a two-tiered system. One for those who can pay and one for those who can't," he said. Data analysis shows the average amount demanded by family doctors was $63, and the average for specialists was $91. The biggest category is medications or anaesthetics, followed by administrative charges like photocopies or filling forms. Adopted last week, Quebec Health Minister Gaétan Barrette's Bill 20 included a set of amendments to legalize fees charged to patients in clinics for insured services, commonly called "accessory fees." The list of regulated ancillary fees will come later, after the government hires an independent accounting firm to determine real costs.
  • But Leblanc noted the public wasn't consulted because "initially Bill 20 made no mention of the possibility of accessory fees," Leblanc said. And there are no prior government studies or surveys to determine the scope or impact of current fees on patients, he added. The introduction of user fees is a serious threat to universal care, critics said, including the Canadian Medical Association, Quebec Medical Association, Canadian Doctors for Medicare, and Médecins québécois pour le régime publique (MQRP), who asked Barrette to hold offon regulating fees in October.
  • Charging patients at doctors offices and clinics for medically necessary care isn't acceptable, said Isabelle Leblanc, president of the pro-medicare group, Médécins québécois pour le régime publique. It strikes at the heart of the principle that access to health care should be based on need rather than ability to pay, she added. The clinic's health committee is calling on Barrette to suspend extra fees and on the new federal Health Minister Jane Philpott "to act immediately to force Quebec to respect the Canada Health Act," said Louis Blouin of the committee. The committee is continuing to document billing in its online registry. It can be found on the Pointe-Saint-Charles clinic website cfidelman@montrealgazette.com twitter.com/HealthIssues
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