Henri Giroux the president of CUPE 146 says the front line staff at Cassellholme want to work with the different municipalities to keep the home public.

35,000 direct job losses for the public sector and somewhere between 10,000 and 15,000 indirect job losses in the private sector, throwing the economy into a deep recession,” says Lucas.

On top of that,” says Lucas, “after saying they were opposed to P3s – so-called public-private-partnerships – during the election campaign, the Liberal government now says it wants to ‘explore’ privatized health care and other vital public services.

125 sources of literature on scopes of practice interventions to see their impact;

optimizing scopes of practice, paired with evolving models of shared care can provide a multidimensional approach to shift the health care system from one that is characteristically siloed to one that is collaborative and patient-focused.

Huge corporations, contracted by government, manage health systems, sell drugs and medical supplies, run IT systems and collect valuable, strategic data for marketing. As an example, a large American company provides multiple services in Nova Scotia. Its global annual revenues are $122 billion. That dwarfs the total expenditure of all Nova Scotia government departments, which is just over $8 billion.

DoctorsNovaScotia, where are you? Stop endlessly negotiating physician contracts. Step up and lead.

People respect their doctors, or at least they used to. It’s time to dump the dinosaurs, admit you need to work with other professions and act like you believe in patient-centred care.

For more information on the SDOH, please see http://www.thecanadianfacts.org/ with references by Juha Mikkonen and Dennis Raphael and also resources at http://www.thinkupstream.net/ directed by Ryan Meili.

Regional Hospital did a thorough investigation of the performance of steriPro or a comprehensive risk assessment. Compounding the quality issues, the contract involves the transportation of very delicate surgical instruments over rural highways in all weather conditions, which is not recommended by their manufacturers, " said Hurley. "We urge the Pembroke Regional Hospital to reconsider the contracting out of sterilization. We are dismayed by the huge expenditure the hospital must now make on surgical trays and equipment to use this contractor, in order to have sufficient supply on hand," said Cindy shulz, president of CuPe local 1502, which represents staff at the hospital.

Renfrew and area residents are among the patients seeking services at PRH. At Renfrew Victoria Hospital, sterilization is done on-site.

the hospital reached a turning point five years ago, explained president and CeO Randy Penney. "We made the decision to make the investment," said Penney. "We have invested in both the equipment and staff and have all staff certified."

Questions were also raised by Ricci and other union officials present about how much the cancellation of the agreement ended up costing Trillium Health Partners, and especially whether Pembroke Regional Hospital officials

had contacted them to discuss potential issues with entering into their own agreement with SteriPro. Questions about the cost of their deal's termination, communications personnel with Trillium Health Partners were vague. "In response to your questions regarding Trillium Health Partners' contract with SteriPro," reads an emailed statement from THP interim communications manager Catherine Pringle, "the

hospital reached a mutual agreement with our service provider to end our services agreement. Trillium Health Partners is in the process of assuming sole responsibility for its medical device reprocessing operations." "I am unable to share any specific information regarding the terms of the mutual agreement due to confidentiality obligations," it continues, "however I can tell you that fiscal responsibility was an important factor at the heart of our decision-making process."

At the end of the day, CUPE representatives wanted assurances that PRH representatives have done their due diligence ahead of a making the decision to outsource the sterilization service. "I'm hoping the hospital up here would ask [THP] why they ended their contract," says Ricci, who also wondered if there were quality problems getting clean equipment from SteriPro to THP, at an average total distance of 20 kilometres of travel, how much more difficult would it be for the same equipment to have to travel the more than 450 kilometres from the GTA to the Ottawa Valley. rpaulsen@postmedia.com Twitter.com/PRyanPaulsen

Ryan Paulsen, Daily Observer / Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions of CUPE, left, Simone Burger, vice-president of CUPE Local 1502, and Joe Ricci, president of Trillium Health Partners CUPE Local 5180, hosted a media conference recently to discuss the issue of Pembroke Regional Hospital outsourcing the sterilization of surgical equipment to the GTA-based company SteriPro.

Several of the questions focus on how many incidents workers have reported and whether they are afraid of reprisal if they speak up at work about violent incidents. The poll also asked how many times in the last year staffhave experienced sexual harassment or assault either non-physical or physical. "The results of personal experience with violence are very disturbing and suggest a profoundly unsafe environment," says OCHU

president Michael Hurley. "But for us, the most unexpected and unsettling finding is the measure of sexual harassment or sexual assault. "The number of staffafraid of reprisal if they report violence in North Bay is also very concerning, if not unexpected, given the firing of a nurse who raised the issue in January."

In January, nurse Sue McIntyre was fired by the health centre after she spoke on a workplace violence panel. In her comments, McIntyre had zeroed in on the issue of reprisal against health care staffwho report. Others on the panel stressed that there are fewer staffto deal with more aggressive

patients. Ontario has the lowest hospital and long-term care staffing levels in the country. Delegates attending the conference asked the provincial health minister to take the following actions: Enact legislation, to protect health-care workers from violence Provide health care workers with the same rights to refuse unsafe work as other workers in the public sector Charge patients and family members under the Criminal Code who are violent with staff Fund and staffOntario hospitals and long-term care facilities to the Canadian average.

What's more said Hurley at a media conference to release the poll findings, "it's a grim and concerning reality that despite the fact incidents are happening almost daily, workers fear reprisal and incidents are under-reported". The majority of respondents said that in the last year, in the workplace they had experienced at least one incident of physical violence, but many said they had experienced nine or more occurrences.

59 per cent of the poll respondents are RPNs or PSWs. Of those respondents 73 per cent are women. 41 per cent of respondents provided other important support services at NBRHC. A high number, 81 per cent also indicated they witnessed incidents of physical and non-physical violence toward co-workers in the last year.

40 per cent of respondents had experienced sexual harassment or sexual assault either physical or non-physical in the last year. "These workers are largely women. This is violence against women that's being allowed to happen here. In what other workplace would sexual harassment and sexual violence, at this level be tolerated?" Asked Sharon Richer, OCHU north eastern

Ontario vice-president. The poll also points to a climate of intimidation in the workplace and an under-reporting of incidents. 51 per cent responded that they are afraid of reprisal if they speak up about an incident of violence. The poll shows that there are far-more incidents of violence experienced by respondents than are actually reported. "The findings show violence is pervasive in this workplace. It's an unsafe work environment where something is standing in the way of workers reporting incidents. There is a fear of reprisal if you report. There is also under-reporting, which is linked to reprisal. There is no doubt people are afraid to speak out," said Hurley. FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT: Michael Hurley OCHU President 416-884-0770 Sharon Richer OCHU, Vice-President North Eastern Ontario 705-280-0911 Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications 416-559-9300 Source: Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU)

He said 555 employees participated in the most recent survey. "The health centre is committed to ensuring the safety of staff and patients and has numerous programs and processes in place in order to ensure a safe workplace and to deal with any safety issues, including workplace violence that might arise," Heinrich said.

"Further, the North Bay Regional Health Centre supports a blame-free culture of reporting of safety issues, including issues of workplace violence. As per the Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) under no circumstances will any person who in good faith reports an incident of workplace violence /harassment or assists in its investigation be subject to any form of retribution or reprisal as a result of this action."

According to Health Quality Ontario, the median wait for a long-term-care bed in the northwest region of the province is 187 days if you’re living at home, 93 days if you’re living in hospital – one of the worst records in the province.

But the data tell only part of the story. That average six-month wait is for a long-term-care bed anywhere in the region. The next closest communities to Red Lake are Dryden and Kenora, each about a three-hour drive away, a punishing journey for families who want to visit regularly. So they wait even longer for a local placement.

Although they denounced the Conservative move and promised to negotiate a new accord with a long-term funding agreement, the Liberals did not specifically promise to reinstate the escalator.

And Philpott appeared to suggest Thursday that it's not in the cards.

At $36 billion, health transfers are already "the largest in Canadian history," she told the House of Commons.