Skip to main content

Home/ CUPE Health Care/ Contents contributed and discussions participated by Irene Jansen

Contents contributed and discussions participated by Irene Jansen

Simple Middle Filter: All | Bookmarks | Topics
Irene Jansen

Health spending hits record (Saskatchewan) - 0 views

www.leaderpost.com/...story.html

Saskatchewan budget

shared by Irene Jansen on 21 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • the province's health regions and the cancer agency must find $54 million in efficiencies.
  • RHAs received a 4.5-per-cent increase over last year's funding but must find 1.5 per cent in efficiencies.
  • Keith Dewar, CEO of the RQHR, would have welcomed more funding, but said: "If you go across the country, this is a relatively good budget from a health system perspective."
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • all health regions are using Lean principles to find efficiencies and cost savings in the system, but acknowledged it will be a challenging year for the Regina Qu'Appelle Health Region (RQHR), which currently has a $23.5-million deficit.
  • introduction of Collaborative Emergency Centres (CECs) in rural communities
Irene Jansen

Health ministers look to cut back on pricey diagnostic tests - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article9820161

cof innovation guidelines drugs home care

shared by Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Ontario, for instance, is pumping money into providing more home care. Manitoba is looking toward preventive medicine. Saskatchewan is reviewing ways to improve long-term care. Nova Scotia has a system where paramedics treat some ailments in long-term care facilities to avoid tying up hospital beds.
    • Irene Jansen
      Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13
       
      For truth re. Ontario home care, see: as http://ochuleftwords.blogspot.ca/search/label/homecare Wall's vision of "improving LTC" in Saskatchewan involves expanding retirement homes (largely private for-profit, lesser-regulated).
  • Mr. Ghiz said they could use more help from Ottawa.“Hopefully, some day, the federal government will be at the table with dollars and with ideas – we're open
    • Irene Jansen
      Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13
       
      "Hopefully, some day, the federal government will be at the table with dollars and with ideas - we're open". This is not a battle cry.
  • finding ways to keep seniors out of hospital. Ontario, for instance, is pumping money into providing more home care. Manitoba is looking toward preventive medicine. Saskatchewan is reviewing ways to improve long-term care. Nova Scotia has a system where paramedics treat some ailments in long-term care facilities to avoid tying up hospital beds.
    • Irene Jansen
      Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13
       
      For the truth on Ontario home care, see http://ochuleftwords.blogspot.ca/search/label/homecare Wall's vision of "improving LTC" in Saskatchewan involves expanding retirement homes (lesser-regulated, largely for-profit).
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • The provinces will look to expand a collective drug-purchasing plan, set new guidelines to cut the number of unnecessary medical procedures and improve home care for senior citizens. These strategies were on the table Friday as provincial health ministers hunkered down in Toronto for two meetings on overhauling the nation's universal health-care system and wrestling down its cost.
  • The greatest cost pressure on the system, however, may be the demographic shift and the steady rise in the number of senior citizens requiring chronic care.
  • The second, chaired by Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, focused on dealing with the nation's aging population.
  • The provinces are also looking at ways to cut back on pricey diagnostic tests and surgeries such as MRIs, knee replacements and cataract removals. After consulting with health-care professionals, they hope to draw up a series of voluntary guidelines, to be presented this summer, on when such procedures are necessary and when they can be skipped.
  • The provinces will look to expand a collective drug-purchasing plan, set new guidelines to cut the number of unnecessary medical procedures and improve home care for senior citizens. These strategies were on the table Friday as provincial health ministers hunkered down in Toronto for two meetings on overhauling the nation's universal health-care system and wrestling down its cost.
  • The first session was part of the Health Care Innovation Working Group
  • The first session was part of the Health Care Innovation Working Group
  • The second, chaired by Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, focused on dealing with the nation's aging population.
  • Last year, the working group produced a deal that saw the provinces and territories, with the exception of Quebec, team up to purchase six generic drugs in bulk, which resulted in savings of $100-million annually.They want to take a similar approach to buying name-brand medicines. Mr. Ghiz estimated such a plan could save $25-million to $100-million more.
  • Last year, the working group produced a deal that saw the provinces and territories, with the exception of Quebec, team up to purchase six generic drugs in bulk
  • They want to take a similar approach to buying name-brand medicines. Mr. Ghiz estimated such a plan could save $25-million to $100-million more.
  • The provinces are also looking at ways to cut back on pricey diagnostic tests and surgeries such as MRIs, knee replacements and cataract removals. After consulting with health-care professionals, they hope to draw up a series of voluntary guidelines, to be presented this summer, on when such procedures are necessary and when they can be skipped.
  • The greatest cost pressure on the system, however, may be the demographic shift and the steady rise in the number of senior citizens requiring chronic care.
  • finding ways to keep seniors out of hospital.
  • For all the provinces' innovations, however, Mr. Ghiz said they could use more help from Ottawa.
  • “Hopefully, some day, the federal government will be at the table with dollars and with ideas – we're open
Irene Jansen

Residents gave senior, now charged with murder, wide berth - The Globe and Mail - 0 views

www.theglobeandmail.com/...article9849611

Ontario ltc violence staffing

shared by Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • “Staff did express concerns that this individual was violent,” said Candace Rennick, a regional vice-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents workers at the facility.
  • The tragedy has renewed concerns about low staffing at the Wexford. “You’ve got to ask: Where was the staff during all this?” said Matthias Jetleb, a former vice-chairman of the facility’s family council, whose mother lives there.
  • Inspection records at the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care show complaints filed against the residence last year range from failure to have written plans of care for each resident to abusive behaviour by staff.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Mr. Jetleb blames politics for the problems arising from short staffing. “I think that this is a tragic consequence of bare-bones funding,” he said.
  • Staff members have complained that they are saddled with an increasing amount of government paperwork and have less time to monitor residents, Mr. Jetleb added.
Irene Jansen

Hospitals to publish statistics on superbugs (New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal ) - 0 views

www.evernote.com/...1f7591cad3c6af3b417444cbef313a

NB HAI reporting

shared by Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Statistics on infectious diseases in hospitals - including fast-spreading superbugs - will be published on Horizon Health Network's website as of May 1.
  • New Brunswick hospitals have been under pressure to publish the number of people suffering from ailments from so-called superbugs that are resistant to antibiotic treatment following a recent incident at the Dr. Georges-L-Dumont University Hospital in Moncton.
  • "no answer at this time" when asked if Vitalité would begin publicly reporting the number of cases of C. difficile or other superbugs.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Many hospitals in other provinces publish their infection rates on their websites, and in Ontario it's required by law.
  • the accepted Canadian standard.
Irene Jansen

Nurses not in surplus: director; Head of Nurses Association of New Brunswick is hoping ... - 0 views

www.evernote.com/...5b8f6d44766cd4cfa9f0f86a986350

NB hospital cuts

shared by Irene Jansen on 20 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The Vitalité Health Network, which covers the province's largely francophone areas, recently announced it would cut 400 jobs over three to four years.
  • Much of the increases in recent years were in licensed practical nurses
  • the province's spread-out population and number of facilities, as well as the higher number of hospital beds per capita than most provinces - with many being occupied by people awaiting long-term care - will also lead to a higher number of nurses required.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • the job cuts obviously won't be targeted solely - or perhaps at all - at the nursing workforce
  • Tarjan admitted she thinks health care in the province needs to be "right-sized" but she wouldn't comment on specifics of what she would like to see, except to say that she thinks there is a surplus of acute service
Irene Jansen

Not all home and community care receiving increases this year | OPSEU Diablogue - 0 views

diablogue.org/...-receiving-increases-this-year

Ontario hospital substitution

shared by Irene Jansen on 19 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • It’s always been an odd concept to us to separate out hospitals from other community-based providers. If hospitals are not operating in their communities, where the heck are they operating?
  • hospitals are health care citadels within their communities and attract far more community involvement than some of the so-called private for-profit “community-based” health care providers
  • Walk into the lobby of any hospital and you’ll likely see an information desk with volunteers from the community sitting behind it. If you’ve had heart surgery recently, you’ll have probably received a visit by a hospital volunteer who is there to answer your questions. Community volunteers are key to making fundraising foundations work for hospitals.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • hospital boards are mostly made up of people who live in the community
  • public hospitals not only serve their communities, but they also operate beyond their walls in what most would consider as home care work
  • CEO of the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, told us he was receiving no increase in funding for the ACT (Assertive Community Treatment) teams that visit client homes to provide mental health support. These workers rarely even see the inside of a hospital. Yet because of their connection to the hospital, they suffer under the same freeze to base budgets.
Irene Jansen

Health ministers mull more home care | The Chronicle Herald - 0 views

thechronicleherald.ca/...-ministers-mull-more-home-care

Council of the Federation innovation home care drugs purchasing

shared by Irene Jansen on 18 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • TORONTO — Provinces and territories will likely have to expand home care as a way to deal with the demographic deluge of aging Canadians, two premiers said Friday during a gathering of provincial health ministers.
  • Provinces and territories will likely have to expand home care as a way to deal with the demographic deluge of aging Canadians, two premiers said Friday during a gathering of provincial health ministers.
  • An aging population was at the top of the working group’s agenda as a major concern because it’s consuming more health-care dollars, said P.E.I. Premier Robert Ghiz.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • There aren’t enough nursing home beds to accommodate the surge of seniors needing care, so home care may be the solution, said Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall.
  • The working group, which Ghiz and Wall both lead, is also making progress on lowering the cost of prescription drugs, they said.
  • Several provinces and territories reached a deal in January to team up when purchasing six widely used generic drugs, which will collectively save them about $100 million a year, Wall said.
  • They’re also looking at brand-name drugs and will have more to say about it in July at the Council of the Federation meeting in Niagara-on-the-Lake
  • The provinces have agreements for seven brand-name drugs and they’re negotiating prices for 13 others, said Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews.
    • Irene Jansen
      Irene Jansen on 25 Mar 13
       
      bulk purchasing agreement among the provinces covering 27 prescription drugs. There are approximately 6500 prescription drugs on the Canadian market, with about 80 new drugs coming on to the market each year. So only about 6475 drugs to go - this year. CF
  • The working group also talked about “appropriateness of care” — ways to make the health-care system more efficient and cut down on soaring costs. “The radiologists in this country have said 10 to 20 per cent of diagnostic imaging is probably not required,” Wall said.
  • There might be other suggestions from providers, in terms of cataracts
Irene Jansen

CUPE calls for 'adequate' staffing in seniors' care facilities | CTV News - 1 views

www.ctvnews.ca/...iors-care-facilities-1.1198307

Ontario ltc violence staffing cupe

shared by Irene Jansen on 18 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • A homicide in a Toronto seniors’ home is raising questions about long-term care home capacity in Ontario
  • A recent report from the province’s auditor general on wait times for beds in such facilities revealed a growing demand that is already taxing the system: the average wait is 98 days – a number that has almost tripled since 2005. The report also found that 15 per cent of people on long-term care wait lists die before ever receiving accommodation.
  • Tamara Daly, a Canadian Institutes of Health Research chair and an associate professor of Health at York University, said government should be addressing staffing levels at long-term care facilities, where workers are few and still overburdened by paperwork and government red tape.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • there are fewer staff today in long-term care facilities than there were 10 to 15 years ago
  • “You have fewer staff, you have higher care needs and you have more paperwork,” Daly said. “So you kind of have a perfect storm.”
  • In a statement on the death of a senior attacked by another resident at Wexford Retirement Home in Scarborough, Ont., on Thursday, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) renewed its appeal to Ontario’s health minister for increased care and staffing levels.
  • CUPE members who work in the sector say that often there is only one personal support worker overnight and 24 to 30 patients per floor, and one registered nurse for every three floors.
Irene Jansen

Allyson Pollock, David Price and Louisa Harding-Edgar January 2013 Briefing paper - the... - 1 views

www.opendemocracy.net/...g-paper-nhs-reinstatement-bill

NHS legislation ally

shared by Irene Jansen on 16 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The democratic and legal basis for the NHS in England was abolished by the Health and Social Care Act 2012. The impact of this fundamental change is already being felt, ahead of the shift to the new market system in April 2013.  
  • The Act ended the Secretary of State’s duty to secure or provide health services throughout the country, a duty that had been in force since 1948.
  • The Act breaks up the universal system that has served us for over sixty years, and reduces the NHS to a stream of taxpayer funds and a logo for the use of a range of public and corporate providers of services.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • This briefing explains what the government is doing and why an urgent bill to reinstate the NHS in England is required. 
Irene Jansen

CUPE Quebec launches a TV campaign: Do you know your care-facilitators? < Social servic... - 1 views

cupe.ca/...ebec-launches-tv-campaign-care

cupe Quebec ad

shared by Irene Jansen on 08 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Our members on the provinicial social services council (Conseil provincial des affaires sociales - CPAS) launched&nbsp; a TV advertising campaign&nbsp;on Monday, February 18. The campaign will run across Quebec for four weeks.
  • See the TV ad on YouTube (French only)
Irene Jansen

York U research program to shed light on gender influences in senior care work | York M... - 1 views

news.yorku.ca/...influences-in-senior-care-work

ltc ally

shared by Irene Jansen on 04 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • will be supported by eight partner organizations
    • Irene Jansen
      Irene Jansen on 04 Mar 13
       
      CUPE is one of the partner organizations.
  • “LTC work is increasingly precarious, fast-paced and low paid and that leads to health implications.
  • Comparative studies exploring LTC working conditions among various provinces, as well as Canadian conditions in comparison with those in Germany, Sweden, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States, are proposed as part of the five-year plan.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • York University Professor Tamara Daly will lead a research program studying the gendered health impacts of performing paid and unpaid care work for seniors in long-term care (LTC) settings.
  • The professor has been awarded one of nine Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) research chairs in Gender Work and Health. The program, Working well: understanding how gender influences working conditions and health in long term care settings across Canada and internationally, will receive $800,000 in CIHR funding over five years
  • “Health care work is unhealthy and at times dangerous work, with the most challenging conditions prevailing in LTC settings. We don’t often talk about gender in LTC settings even though care work is primarily performed by women,” says Daly, a professor at the School of Health Policy and Management in York U’s Faculty of Health.
  • (Watch the video)
Irene Jansen

Public inquiry probes Calgary cancer screening clinic: Steward | Toronto Star - 0 views

www.thestar.com/..._screening_clinic_steward.html

Alberta diagnostics private clinics two tier

shared by Irene Jansen on 27 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • a public inquiry into queue jumping in the public health-care system reveals all sorts of interesting data about a state-of-the-art colon cancer screening clinic associated with the University of Calgary’s medical school.
  • patients who were clients of a boutique private clinic, a privilege for which they paid $10,000 a year, were booked for screening colonoscopies almost instantaneously. Other patients usually waited two to three years for the widely promoted procedure.
  • In his book Seeking Sickness, Alan Cassels of the University of Victoria points out that colon cancer screening by stool sample or colonoscopy only reduces deaths from 8.83 per thousand to 5.88 per thousand, or about 3 per thousand.
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • “It seems to be preferential access for well people while the sick suffer,” says Wendy Armstrong, a researcher with the Consumer Association of Alberta, which has intervenor status at the public hearings.
  • it performs 18,000 colonoscopies a year
  • The clinic was established after two wealthy Calgarians — John Forzani and Keith MacPhail — donated $2.7 million for pricey technology, the U of C donated some space in a brand-new building, and the health region (medicare in other words) committed to $70 million worth of funding.
  • Billed as the largest colonoscopy clinic in Canada, it boasts six pre-assessment rooms, six endoscopy rooms, 24 recovery beds and is staffed by 55 health professionals.
  • Alberta Health Services now covers the entire cost of the Forzani-Macphail Colon Cancer Screening Centre
Irene Jansen

Health authorities slam B.C. government over talks with nurses about long-term deal - 0 views

www.vancouversun.com/...story.html

BC bargaining nurses

shared by Irene Jansen on 27 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • The heads of B.C.’s six health authorities have lashed out against an effort by Premier Christy Clark’s B.C. Liberal government to secure a 10-year deal with the province’s nurses, saying talks have been taking place behind their backs and without their consent.
  • “We insist that HEABC, without having engaged in the full consultation process contemplated by the Constitution and By Laws of the Association, not participate in any negotiations to achieve such an agreement,”
  • On Monday, Health Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said there have been “informal discussions” between government, the HEABC and nurses on a possible long-term deal, but said that nothing official has yet to take place.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Nurses recently ratified a two-year collective agreement, which included a stipulation to add 2,125 full-time nurses to the health care system over the next four years. That agreement expires March 31, 2014.
  • B.C. Nurses’ Union president Debra McPherson said her union is right now in negotiations “to clean up some of the stuff related to our last bargaining,“ but said that a 10-year agreement is not under discussion.But, she said, the union would be amenable to discussions about a longer-term extension.
  • a push by the BCNU for legislation to reclassify the LPNs was part of what precipitated the informal talks on a long-term deal.“The BCNU approached us to talk to us about legislative amendments and it may be that when those conversation began to happen that this started to be discussed as well,” she said.
Irene Jansen

In Florida, a health-care quandary - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...2-b99e-6baf4ebe42df_story.html

US medicare managed care LTC

shared by Irene Jansen on 27 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • If state lawmakers back Gov. Rick Scott’s plan to expand Medicaid, it will be an experiment with a determinedly free-market twist.
  • the federal government tentatively approved his application to fully privatize the federal-state program for the poor.
  • Florida would also become one of the largest states to require virtually all recipients of Medicaid to enroll in private managed-care plans
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Nursing-home operators fear that for-profit insurers may try to move residents into lower-cost settings, even when that may be unsafe.
  • About two-thirds of states already use managed-care companies as a part of their Medicaid programs. Florida has done so for nearly two decades, with more than a third of its 3&nbsp;million Medicaid recipients in the private health plans. These HMO-style plans get paid a set amount of money by the state to provide coverage, and the enrollees generally get care only from doctors, hospitals and other providers who have contracts with the plans.
‹ Previous 21 - 40 of 1349 Next › Last »
Showing 20▼ items per page