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Apr 1, 2016

NORTH BAY, Ont. — The redevelopment of Cassellholme hinges on a commitment to area residents to keep the long-term care home fully public, and “above all, open and frank dialogue. No more secret dealings with consultants and closed door votes,” says the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Ontario.

CUPE’s repeated requests to get information about a process to transition Cassellholme from a public long-term care home where municipalities have a say on the level of care for residents, to a private, non-profit have met with “radio silence,” says Hahn. To that end, CUPE is filing formal freedom of information (FOI) requests with all the contributing municipalities. 

17-12-2013

MONTRÉAL - La décision de bâtir le CHUM en partenariat public-privé coûtera presque deux fois plus cher aux contribuables québécois, selon un rapport obtenu par TVA Nouvelles. Pour la première fois, un chercheur a évalué quels auraient été les coûts si le gouvernement avait choisi un mode de financement conventionnel, plutôt qu'un PPP.

etails of Ontario hospital contracts with consultants, cafeteria operators, cleaning staff or baby formula suppliers remain secret even though hospitals became subject to Freedom of Information Act provisions at the start of 2012.

But exemptions in the act protect hospitals' economic interests and their ability to be competitive, so private third-party contracts (funded by taxpayer dollars) remain inaccessible.

Advocates of public sector accountability say the secrecy surrounding those contracts must change. "Hospitals have privatized a range of services from food services to IT contracts to construction contracts," said Natalie Mehra, director of the Ontario Health Coalition, a public health care advocacy group. "In various areas there are claims that contracts have gone to friends of the CEO, to third parties that don't have an arm's-length relationship with the board or its executives. "The things we need to know are: how much money, to whom exactly, for what services and what are the terms they are getting for those deals."

The province’s privacy commission has ordered the health ministry to release the names of doctors along with their OHIP billings, in the interests of transparency and accountability.The decision comes two years after the Star began requesting physician-identified billings from the health ministry, and brings the province more in line with other jurisdictions that are opting to disclose public funds paid to doctors. In granting an appeal from the Toronto Star, John Higgins, an adjudicator with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, said physician-identified billings are not “personal information” and are, therefore, not exempt from disclosure under the province’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

Higgins has ordered the health ministry to release the information to the Star by July 8.“In my view, the concept of transparency, and in particular, the closely related goal of accountability, requires the identification of parties who receive substantial payments from the public purse, whether they are providing services to public bodies under contract or, as in this case, providing services to the public through their own business activities under an umbrella of public funding,” Higgins wrote.

Apr 25, 2016

NORTH BAY, ON – Documents obtained by the Canadian of Union of Public Employees (CUPE) through freedom of information (FOI) requests show Nipissing area mayors and councillors are privy to much more information about making Cassellholme a private nursing home, than they’ve shared with home’s residents, their families and the local community.

NORTH BAY, ON – There’s the role of a secretive sub-committee that reports back to municipal councils. A hushed consultant’s report filled with financial costings and projections of millions of dollars to buy out yearly contributions to Cassellholme that the mayors and councillors know the content of, but aren’t sharing with the public. There’s a ‘letter of intent’ (LOI) that seemingly binds councillors to a gag order. But councillors have the power to shed the gag order at any time. This is all clear from Freedom of Information (FOI) request documents tied to the “transition” of Cassellholme to a private nursing home, recently obtained by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

Apr 27, 2016

North Bay, Ont – There’s the role of a secretive sub-committee that reports back to municipal councils. A hushed consultant’s report filled with financial costings and projections of millions of dollars to buy out yearly contributions to Cassellholme that the mayors and councillors know the content of, but aren’t sharing with the public. There’s a ‘letter of intent’ (LOI) that seemingly binds councillors to a gag order. But councillors have the power to shed the gag order at any time. This is all clear from Freedom of Information (FOI) request documents tied to the “transition” of Cassellholme to a private nursing home, recently obtained by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

The doctors fear the fact that ‘private companies that have advised the Government on how to dismantle the old system stand to derive commercial benefits from the new one’.

A Mail on Sunday investigation, based on hundreds of official documents disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act, has revealed the full extent of McKinsey’s myriad links to the controversial reforms

Many of the Bill’s proposals were drawn up by McKinsey and included in the legislation wholesale. One document says the firm has used its privileged access to ‘share information’ with its corporate clients – which include the world’s biggest private hospital firms – who are now set to bid for health service work.

In mid-August, B.C.’s Information and Privacy Commissioner handed down an important decision that forces the B.C. government and its health authorities to make public uncensored versions of commercial contracts with private corporations like Compass, Sodexo and K-Bro Linen Systems that provide privatized support services at B.C. health care facilities. The ruling came after a long freedom of information battle waged by CUPE’s health services division in B.C., the Hospital Employees’ Union (HEU).

Canada Newswire Tue Sep 30 2014

ORONTO, Sept. 30, 2014 /CNW/ - The organization that represents registered nurses, nurse practitioners and nursing students in Ontario has issued a formal request to the provincial government for information related to medical tourism. The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) is seeking all general records between 2009 to the present regarding the treatment of international patients (also known as medical tourists) not covered by the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP) in the province's hospitals. The request includes all letters, reports, briefings, agreements, hand-written notes, electronic documents and emails from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Treasury Board, Finance, Cabinet Office and the Office of the Premier. "Hospitals that are part of Toronto's University Health Network, and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre have made no secret that they are open for business when it comes to treating patients from abroad for a fee," says RNAO's Chief Executive Officer Doris Grinspun, adding that the CEO of Windsor Regional Hospital is also pursuing a partnership with Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit to formalize a 'medical free-trade zone' that he says will become the 'envy of the health-care world.'

RNAO hopes the request for information will reveal where else medical tourism is occurring and to what extent the Ontario government is behind this attack on Medicare. Medical tourism is the practice of soliciting international patients for medical treatment within Canada's health system in order to turn a profit. "It will erode the viability of our health system, a cherished part of our social safety net, and shift it from one that understands its mission to treat all according to need, to an Americanized version where health-care services are for sale to those with money and power," says Grinspun. "Allowing hospitals to go shopping for patients to increase their revenue redirects precious resources away from the people who need care the most - patients in Ontario," says RNAO President, Vanessa Burkoski, adding that hospitals that engage in medical tourism are inviting lawsuits from people willing to pay a fee to get ahead of the line.