The survey of 934 Canadians found that only 56.4 per cent of respondents who had a close relative use long-term care in the past 12 months rated the experience positively, substantially lower than the 72.6-per-cent who gave health care in general a positive rating.

"Canada's long-term care system is too complex and care providers and families are expected to do too much with too little," Silas said.

A large majority of respondents identified shortages in the availability of both home care (77.6 per cent) and long-term care services (78.5 per cent) as major problems facing health care in Canada.

QUINTE WEST -- Sickened by service cuts, a Quinte West politician says the city should move even harder to get Trenton's hospital out of the QHC.

Coun. Sally Freeman made the comments following Tuesday's Ontario Health Coalitionbacked rally at Queen's Park.

Dozens of city residents rallied alongside hundreds of people from 10 other jurisdictions.

The hospital in Iroquois Falls has rescinded a contentious decision to amalgamate with the hospitals in Cochrane and Black River-Matheson.

The amalgamation was going to be voted on by those residents who are paid-up members of the hospital at an annual general meeting that was initially scheduled June 11. That meeting has now been moved to July 2.

Jim Brown, a former Iroquois Falls mayor who has been an outspoken critic of the hospital administration and the proposed amalgamation, noted the rescinding could simply be a temporary measure by the hospital board.

The Ottawa Hospital has made steady progress reducing the rate of Clostridium difficile infections at both the Civic and General campuses thanks to an aggressive approach to both cleanliness and antibiotic stewardship, says the hospital's deputy infection-control chief.

But, at a current rate of 0.64 C. difficile infections per 1,000 patient days, the hospital hasn't yet reached its goal rate of 0.45.

Dr. Kathryn Suh, associate director of infection control at the Ottawa Hospital, said Tuesday that, in addition to "robust housekeeping methods," an anti-microbial stewardship team, which is a multi-department group including infection control and infectious disease physicians, senior administration, a pharmacy director and two pharmacists, has been working for 18 months to educate front line physicians about how best to prescribe antibiotics.

But hospital pharmacies, which also mix and supply cancer drugs to patients every day, are not subject to regular inspections by the college.

College Registrar Marshall Moleschi said outdated legislation in Ontario’s Drug and Pharmacies Regulation Act exempts hospitals and other health institutions from having to follow the same rules and regulations as community retail pharmacies.

“I was very surprised when I started working in hospitals that the college does not have any role in the pharmacy side in hospitals, especially given the types of products that are made and handled and utilized within hospitals,” Froude told the committee.

Eye surgeon Dr. John Cripps has had a full-time practice in Muskoka for almost three decades but says he is concerned about the future of ophthalmology in the area. In his opinion, cutbacks made in the last three years to funding for eye surgery combined with the current plan to offer eye surgery at one hospital site only are steps toward moving the service out of Muskoka entirely.

But the hospitals' chief financial officer Tim Smith says single siting isn't about reducing volume of service.

"The Ministry of Health is responsible for allocating volumes," he said, adding that last year the ministry reduced that volume by 10 per cent at every hospital in the province.

Citing three consecutive years of funding freezes coupled with inflation, debt payments and rising staffing costs, the Peterborough Regional Health Centre announced Wednesday it would be cutting 53 positions, mostly registered nurses.

"When you are getting 0% increases and you have to absorb inflation and other cost increases plus pay off our debt, it's getting tougher every year," hospital board chairman Gary Lounsbury said during a press conference Wednesday morning.

The hospital will also close four palliative-care beds.

The institute’s End-of-Life Hospital Care for Cancer Patients examined hospital data for 25 114 cancer patients from all provinces except Quebec. The study reviewed the final 28 days of patients age 20 or older, and found palliative care was the main reason 53% of all patients with cancer were in hospital. But acute care hospitals are not generally designed to provide the specialized care required by patients who are terminally ill with cancer require, the report points out.

The report also found a wide variance in the percentage of people with cancer who died in acute-care settings, depending upon the province in which they died.

The likelihood of a patient with terminal cancer dying in hospital was 39% in British Columbia and 40% in Ontario,

Whether it's cutbacks in the number of operations at Health Sciences North, a shortage of beds because frail elderly people are occupying them or other health-care pressures, the problems are all intertwined and can't be addressed independently, said Dr. Stephen Kosar.

An ophthalmologist who spoke out in February when HSN planned to cancel eye operations in March, Kosar said he was happy when the North East Local Health Integration Network came up with funding for 260 ophthalmology surgeries in Sudbury.

"I think the obvious solution ... politicians fail to talk about is that you have to have another source of funding. The government doesn't have funding, which means the taxpayers, but you can't bleed the taxpayers more," said Kosar, who is district chair of northeastern Ontario for the Ontario Medical Association.

An independent investigator has been appointed by the Ontario Ministry of Health to look into the governance and management practices of Anson General Hospital.

Similarly, MPP John Vanthof (NDP -- Timiskaming- Cochrane) said he had been urging Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews to launch an investigation "for quite a while on this issue. I'm encouraged that she has appointed a special investigator."

Two months ago, the NE LHIN announced it had hired the consulting firm KPMG to conduct an independent review of complaints received about Anson General Hospital.

IROQUOIS FALLS-- An independent investigator has been appointed by the Ontario Ministry of Health to look into the governance and management practices of Anson General Hospital.

This comes in the wake of recent departures by family physicians in Iroquois Falls, public demonstrations, calls for the removal of AGH's chief administrator (Bruce Peterkin) and a lawsuit launched against members of a citizens coalition that has been highly critical of the hospital's administration.

Jim Brown, a former Iroquois Falls mayor and one of the nine citizens named in the hospital lawsuit, was "absolutely thrilled" by the announcement, saying this is what he had been requesting the government do for months.

Orillia Soldiers' Memorial Hospital (OSMH) will be closing more than 20 beds and potentially laying off up to 50 staff members.

Last year, 43 of the 190 inpatient beds were occupied by patients who require an alternate level of care (ALC), but don't necessarily need to be in the hospital. Fourteen beds will be lost in the medical and surgical units and nine in complex continuing care (CCC), a move that will save OSMH over $1.8 million annually, Riley said, noting 15 of the 50 beds on the fourth and fifth CCC floors are typically filled by ALC patients.

"We see it as a good thing for the patients and the family," Riley said.

The level of frustration among surgeons in Sudbury is rising, threatening to reach the point it was at five years ago when they ran advertisements featuring patients complaining about long wait times for medical procedures, says Dr. Peter Zalan.

Zalan called on the board to "participate in advocacy" on behalf of patients and said he will be asking doctors to do so as well. The Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care is intent on "downsizing" hospitals, said Zalan, referring to the recent provincial budget.

Many surgeons have told him "they are embarrassed to meet new patients in the office since they cannot offer them timely help."

Robert Biron stepped into the CEO job at The Scarborough Hospital last week as the hospital prepared to plunge into work that will determine its future in a short length of time. The hospital's senior administrators were surprised on March 27 when the Central East LHIN, the region's health care overseer, froze their controversial plans to divide all surgical services between the Birchmount and General campuses and to merge their separate birthing centres into one centre at the Birchmount.

It also ordered other teams to do a six-month study - starting with a "directional report" in 60 days - on possible service mergers between the hospital and the Rouge Valley Health System, plus a 90-day review of how maternal and pediatric care could be shared within Scarborough.

During a hospital board meeting last Tuesday, he said one community member from each hospital's catchment area will be appointed by the LHIN to the panel studying integrations between the hospitals.

The region's home care agency balanced this year's budget, but its plan to save money by reducing services was shut down by the local health network.

The board passed the service plan with the understanding the Waterloo Wellington Community Care Access Centre will find a way to cover the estimated $3-million in extra operating expenses while offering the same level of service.

This fiscal year the home care provider gets $112.7 million in funding.

The 58-year-old was one of more than 31 registered practical nurses and several registered nurses affected by the cutbacks.

The hospital are dealing with a $14-million deficit and must balance its books by 2014.

Sue McIntyre, president of CUPE Local 139, said non-nursing staff could be next.

Negotiations to find a solution for the conflict between the region’s hospitals and the Kenora District Services Board over who should pay for non-emergency transfers are ongoing, but there are signs progress is being made.

The conflict stems from the question of who should have to pay for ambulance service when it is used to transfer patients between hospitals in non-emergency situations. The district services board has argued the current setup where they have to pay those costs is not sustainable, both financially and from a service perspective.

The services board had been sending out bills to hospitals for the transfers, but all of the region’s hospitals refused to pay them, and the province warned the board they were violating the Ambulance Act by sending the invoices to the hospitals.

The union representing local paramedics is hoping that raising public awareness will put pressure on public officials to reconsider cuts to ambulance service in Frontenac County.

n March, the county a nnounced plans to turn four full-time paramedic positions to part-time and eliminate one ambulance from the Palace Road station -- amounting to approximately 4,380 hours each year.

"We're really trying to increase public awareness of the issue," said Shauna Dunn, chief steward of local 462 of the Ontario Public Sector Employees Union. "We really want to get people's attention today. We need the public to support our efforts to stop the reduction of ambulance services in Kingston."

he Scarborough Hospital and the arm's-length provincial agency that funds it are coming under fire for being secretive about decisions over cuts and changes to services.

"The lack of transparency is a major issue for the community," charged Pat Sherman of the community group Friends of the Scarborough Hospital.

While some of the measures to cut spending and hike revenue have been made public - including the elimination of almost 200 staff positions, the closing of two operating rooms and 20 surgical beds and a summer slowdown of medical care - neither the hospital nor the LHIN have disclosed the entire ist.

Scarborough-Rouge River MPP Bas Balkissoon

Balkissoon said he feels Scarborough isn't treated equally when it comes to healthcare funding, noting nearby North York has a similar sized population but more, and more modern, hospital services.

He also said he disagrees with ongoing funding cuts to hospitals like Scarborough's, that have already worked to find efficiencies in recent years.