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.

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.

October 4, 2013

As the B.C. health services division of CUPE National, HEU encourages our members to fill out a new survey on the impact of “working alone” – an issue that’s been frequently raised by our community health and community social services members. CUPE’s National Health and Safety Committee – which has HEU representation – has identified working alone as a significant factor in unsafe workplaces.

October 4, 2013 Provinces call for improved senior care

Provincial health ministers, meeting today in Toronto, Ontario, with recently-appointed federal health minister Rona Ambrose, refrained from publicly rebuking the federal government for scaling back transfers to provincial health budgets and rebuffing calls for the renewal of the soon-to-expire $41-billion Accord on Health Care Renewal. Deb Matthews, Ontario's Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, who chaired a summit of provincial health ministers before Ambrose arrived, signaled that, instead of confrontation, the provinces want closer, more energetic collaboration with the federal government — especially on improvements to senior care.

Private clinics under fire for charging ‘block fees’  By Elizabeth Payne, OTTAWA CITIZENOctober 2, 2013

The closure of the Ottawa Hospital’s endoscopy clinic at its Riverside campus earlier this year — which saved the province $1 million — means private clinics are handling growing numbers of procedures such as colonoscopies,

Patients at some Ottawa endoscopy clinics are being asked to shell out $80 in block fees before undergoing medical procedures that are covered by OHIP. It’s part of a trend that, critics say, pushes ethical boundaries and violates the principles of the Canada Health Act.Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition, a network of health activist groups, says block fees represent the “creeping introduction of user fees” into the health system, something that is increasingly common and has accelerated with the transfer of medical procedures from hospitals to private clinics.In Ottawa, the closure of the Ottawa Hospital’s endoscopy clinic at its Riverside campus earlier this year — which saved the province $1 million — means private clinics are handling growing numbers of procedures such as colonoscopies, a key cancer prevention tool. Many private clinics charge no additional fees, but at least two Ottawa clinics do.

Canadian drug safety initiative wins global support in campaign to have funding restored BMJ 2013; 347 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f6038 (Published 7 October 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;347:f6038

Barbara Kermode-Scott

An independent drug watchdog, the Therapeutics Initiative,1 has received national and international support in its campaign to persuade the government of the province of British Columbia in Canada to restore its funding.In an open letter2 released on 2 October, Canadian Doctors for Medicare and other signatories from around the world (including representatives of the Public Health Association of British Columbia, the Canadian Health Coalition, PharmaWatch Canada, Canadian Women’s Health Network, Health Action International, and the International Society of Independent Drug Bulletins) called on British Columbia’s premier and provincial government to restore funding to the Therapeutics Initiative.The drug watchdog was established almost 20 years ago by the University of British Columbia’s Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, Department of Family Practice, and the then New Democratic Party government’s ministry of health in British Columbia. Its aim is to provide physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and policy makers with up to date, evidence based, unbiased information and recommendations about the effectiveness and safety of new prescription drugs.

Police investigate incident between women aged 91 and 74 at Evan Hall in Halifax's Clayton Park CBC News Posted: Oct 07, 2013

Halifax Regional Police are trying to figure out what happened between two seniors at a home for people with dementia that resulted in the death of a 91-year-old woman.

Police were called to Evan Hall, which is described as a memory-care facility, around 9:30 p.m. Saturday. They say the 91-year-old was fighting with a 74-year-old woman when the 91-year-old fell and was seriously injured.

National News: Study Compares Insurance Coverage for New Medicines Between Canada's Public and Private Sector Drug Plans [ Edit ] Contributed by admin on Sep 20, 2013

A new study published by the Canadian Health Policy Institute (CHPI) compares insurance coverage for new medicines between Canada's provincial and federal public drug programs; and between public sector drug programs and the benchmarks currently set in a competitive market by private-sector drug insurance. Using data from Health Canada and IMS Brogan, the study specifically examined insurance coverage for new medicines in five (5) select therapeutic classes - allowing Canadians to see how they are uniquely impacted by differences in drug insurance benefits across plans, according to the treatment areas that affect them most directly.

EHealth: Each province doing its own thing has made digitization costs balloon  By Jules Knox, Special To The Province September 24, 2013

Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on digitization but governments continue to struggle to address the diverse needs of healthcare practitioners. The vision of a pan-Canadian electronic health record for each patient, which once seemed so important, is now further off than ever.

B.C. Civil Liberties Association policy director Micheal Vonn is concerned that Canada Health Infoway has an exemption from freedom of information requests related to its spending.

Even NDP MP and deputy leader Libby Davies (Vancouver East, B.C.), her party’s health critic, spoke favourably of Ms. Ambrose’s professionalism.

Toronto Star Sat Oct 5 2013

Suffering from dementia and in a wheelchair, the former translator recently celebrated her 94th birthday in a Polish nursing home. She was sent here by her daughter, who hoped for a better life and more affordable care for her mother.

Miskulin has joined the vanguard of a controversial movement: emigrant nursing home residents.

The Globe and Mail Mon Oct 7 2013

Shutting down government - as U.S. Republicans did in response to Obamacare - is a pretty extreme way to show displeasure, but at least Americans are being forced to talk about their health system and its shortcomings. Canadians prefer to bury their heads in the sand, confident our health system is superior (morally and otherwise) to that in the United States.

The grandiloquent purpose is to ensure that all Americans have health insurance. After all, among the 50 wealthiest countries on Earth, the U.S. is the only one without universal health care.

September 30, 2013

Canada will face a cost crisis unless compensation schemes for physicians are retooled to account for declining workloads, warn health economists.

Payments to physicians have increased over the past decade, at rates outstripping inflation. Not adjusting for inflation, physician payments rose 6% in 2010–11, after increases of 9.7% in 2008–09 and 7.9% in 2009–10, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information. This spike was preceded by a period of "relatively flat" physician expenditures in the 1990s, when provincial governments capped payments and controlled physician supply.

Vancouver Sun Tue Oct 1 2013

The decades-long push to aboriginal self-government in Canada crossed a major threshold today with a historic, and potentially risky, change in the management of health services in B.C. The federal government, which is responsible for health services on reserves, is handing over the budget, 134 staff, and the office keys in B.C. to a new entity called the First Nations Health Authority.

The new authority, with just under 300 staff, takes over the federal government's $377.8-million annual budget that funds nurses, health carefocused social workers, dentists and, eventually, doctors serving roughly 150,000 aboriginals across the province. The federal government expects to transfer control of a total of $4.7 billion in funding over the 10-year life of the agreement.

All Presidents' Meeting October 8 2013

OCHU/OSLA Patient Hotline Report Release 2014 The study Pushed Out of Hospital, Abandoned at Home: After Twenty Years of Budget Cuts, Ontario’s Health System is Failing Patients, chronicles the qualitative experiences of hundreds of patients and their families from across Ontario, who called a 1-800 patient hotline. Set up for over a period of a year, the patient hotline is a joint initiative of the Ontario Association of Speech-Language Pathologists and Audiologists (OSLA) and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

Oct 1, 2013

New Glasgow –  CUPE hospital workers with the Pictou County Health Authority will be meeting in New Glasgow on Wednesday, October 2 to hear about a so-called healthcare ‘Superboard’ in our province. CUPE Acute Care Co-ordinator Wayne Thomas will be making a presentation about what the experience has been in other provinces – in particular Alberta and New Brunswick where they have moved in this direction.

CUPE NL reaches tentative agreement with provincial government

ST. JOHN'S, NEWFOUNDLAND--(Marketwired - Sept. 30, 2013) - CUPE Newfoundland and Labrador has reached a tentative agreement in its contract talks with the provincial government. CUPE's Chief Negotiator Brian Farewell says, "We have reached deals in all of the sectors that participate in master bargaining with the province. Specific details will be presented to CUPE members at ratification meetings. I can say that our Negotiating Committees will be recommending acceptance of the deal." The sectors include health care, school boards, housing, libraries, group homes and Government House.

Alzheimer's causes half of long-term care cases Cases of the disease are expected to more than double by 2050 The Associated Press Posted: Sep 20, 2013

Nearly half of all seniors who need some form of long-term care -— from help at home to full-time care in a facility — have dementia, the World Alzheimer Report said Thursday.

2004 federal-provincial accord expires in March CBC News Posted: Sep 03, 2013