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The Globe and Mail Mon May 25 2015

The federal government should work with the provinces to integrate mental-health services into the health system, the opposition NDP and Liberals say. NDP health critic Murray Rankin said his party would implement the broad strokes of recommendations from the Mental Health Commission of Canada, which include a call to make psychotherapy and clinical counselling more accessible. Hedy Fry, health critic for the Liberal Party, said mental-health services should be part of a more integrated approach to health care. Both said their parties would work more closely with the provinces on health-care matters if they form the next government after the election this fall.

Their comments came after a Globe and Mail article detailed the difficulties many Canadians face in accessing psychotherapy to treat depression and anxiety. Long waiting lists for publicly funded psychotherapy mean the treatment is often out of reach for low-income Canadians who cannot afford to pay for private care and are less likely to be covered by workplace benefits. Instead, many people rely on visits to family doctors and prescription drugs, which experts say are not always the most effective treatment. Mental illness in Canada costs nearly $50billion a year in health-care dollars and lost productivity, according to the Mental Health Commission of Canada.

New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal Wed Aug 26 2015

miramichi * Wearing their now-familiar red shirts and clutching makeshift candles made of Tim Hortons cups and whatever else they could find, nearly 200 unionized workers, mostly from the city's two nursing homes and the Miramichi Regional Hospital, lined up along Water Street in Chatham Head Monday night to rally against further privatization in the public sector. The candlelight vigil was organized by Kevin Driscoll, the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 865, which represents hospital staff in Miramichi.

Driscoll, who works as a nursing unit clerk at the Miramichi Regional Hospital, said that workers are growing more disenchanted by the day as the provincial government continues to give the private sector a greater role in its health care and senior care system. He said CUPE staff felt they had to do something to draw attention to these issues and, with the hospital serving as the backdrop as night fell on the city Monday night, everyone agreed that gathering on the side of the road by candlelight would help convey their message. "It shows that people here really care about the Miramichi and it's too bad that politicians don't care about it as much," Driscoll said. "They want to privatize the nursing homes, they want to cut to the Education Department, their cutting the highway budgets and they're cutting to every service they can think of, so where are we going to go? They don't seem to think that matters."

Vancouver Sun Wed Sep 23 2015

When Seniors Advocate Isobel Mackenzie reported earlier this year that up to 15 per cent of B.C. seniors living in residential care may be incorrectly housed, many of us working in the seniors' housing sector sat up and took notice. It's not that we were unaware of the situation , but now someone with influence and authority had called for action. The report noted that as many as 4,400 seniors in residential care in B.C. - 15 per cent of the total - could potentially live more independently.

The B.C. Seniors Living Association (BCSLA) agrees, and we will publish a report at our annual conference in Whistler this weekend. (A full copy of our report is available at bcsla.ca.) BCSLA represents owners and operators of 60 per cent of the total number of independent living and assisted living units in B.C. Our members provide 14,650 independent living and publicly funded and private-pay assisted living suites throughout the province. We know where the sticking points in the system are - and the logjam in residential care is certainly one of them.

The Globe and Mail Mon Mar 16 2015

Is it possible, years after a consensus was reached that a woman's rights include reproductive choice, that abortion could become an election issue again? It's hard to imagine that any politician in the country would want to touch a fire that has lain dormant for so long. Yet two anti-abortion groups, Campaign Life Coalition Youth and the Canadian Centre for BioEthical Reform, are attempting to stir the embers with a "#No2Trudeau" campaign targeting what they call the "extremist position" of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, who has said all his MPs will be expected to vote the pro-choice party line. I can't think that this campaign will get very far, especially when the majority of Canadians accept that reproductive decision-making lies with women, rather than with doctors or the government.

But perhaps the very notion of this consensus has made us complacent about abortion access, and blind to the distance that still needs to be travelled before every woman in the country has the safe, affordable, local service that is her right. Take the situation in New Brunswick, for example. Until this year, the province had some of the most restrictive abortion laws in Canada. A woman required the signature of two doctors (in a province where 17,000 people are without family doctors), and it had to be performed by a specialist in a hospital in order to be covered by public insurance. Abortion was a central issue in last year's New Brunswick election campaign, and provincial Liberal Leader Brian Gallant made his pro-choice position clear. After his party came to power, he removed some of the hurdles to access - now, a woman doesn't need two doctors' approval, and a family doctor can perform the procedure. But the government didn't go far enough. Abortion services have been extended to just one extra hospital, in Moncton, and government still refuses to pay for the procedure anywhere else.

As a group of lawyers and health academics spell out in the Lancet medical journal this week, if the health and social care bill is passed in its amended form it will abolish England's model of "tax-financed, universal healthcare", pave the way for a "US-style health system" based on "mixed funding" and fatally undermine "entitlement to equality of healthcare provision".

the government's parallel attempt to drive through the deepest cuts in the history of the NHS.

One of its own advisers, Chris Ham, has even raised the spectre of a an "NHS version of the Arab spring".

Our members on the provinicial social services council (Conseil provincial des affaires sociales - CPAS) launched  a TV advertising campaign on Monday, February 18. The campaign will run across Quebec for four weeks.

See the TV ad on YouTube (French only)

Grim predictions that our rapidly aging society will act like a ‘grey tsunami’ to overwhelm and bankrupt our health care system aren’t accurate, according to the University of Victoria’s Canada Research Chair in Social Gerontology Neena Chappell and Marcus Hollander, president of Hollander Analytical Services.

the primary factors in increasing health care costs are technology and increased service provision to people of all ages

significant opportunities for cost savings while maintaining quality care for seniors, and that significant savings can be achieved through better organization and management of their health services

The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton) Sat Apr 25 2015

FREDERICTON * The Liberal government is defending its decision to seek private management of food and cleaning services in the province's hospitals despite the fact that it likely will lead to job losses. The government of Premier Brian Gallant was elected on a job creation platform and there were questions in the legislature on Friday about how privatizing hospital services would contribute to that goal. Health Minister Victor Boudreau, the minister responsible for the government's strategic program review, has announced that the province is negotiating with a private firm to take over the management of food and cleaning services in hospitals. Boudreau said there likely will be job losses among the unionized workers.

"How does the minister expect to create jobs, grow the economy, and make life better for New Brunswick families by sending public money out of the province and forcing public employees into the unemployment lines?" Green Party leader David Coon asked during question period on Friday. Boudreau said the government is trying to become more efficient so it can spend money on job creation. "We are in a deficit situation," the minister said. "If we do balance the books and if we do find those efficiencies, we will be able to reinvest that money. We will be able to reinvest it in priorities such as education, health care, and social services. To do that, we first have to balance the books." Boudreau said the former Progressive Conservative government started two years ago to assess whether privatizing some hospital services would be beneficial.

Financial Buzz Sat Dec 12 2015

NORTH BAY, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Dec 12, 2015) - From hospital service cuts to workers locked out at Ontario Northland, skyrocketing hydro rates and a loss of good manufacturing jobs, North Bay is feeling the full force of the Liberal government's austerity agenda, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn told the Unity for Our Community rally today in North Bay

"You can't cut your way to prosperity," said Hahn, president of Ontario's largest union. "Cuts to public services are devastating to communities. North Bay is witnessing this first-hand with huge service cuts and mass layoffs at the hospital. But Kathleen Wynne's unflinching support for austerity and privatization is hurting every corner of the community."

Jun 1, 2016

The Pallister Government’s first provincial budget offers minor improvements to many important areas of the public sector, says CUPE Manitoba. “We are pleased to see this government’s continuation of funding to health care, education, post-secondary education, and social services,” says Kelly Moist, president of CUPE Manitoba. “In an environment where cuts would have been the ‘easy way out’, we are pleased that this government listened to Manitobans, and has instead maintained or increased funding to many key public services”.

Over the past 15 years a coalition of liberals and conservatives has brought in for-profit free schools in education, has sliced welfare to pay off the deficit and has privatised large parts of the health service.

Sweden's private equity industry has grown into the largest in Europe relative to the size of its economy, with deals worth almost £3bn agreed last year. The key to this takeover was allowing private firms to enter the healthcare market

There are now six private hospitals funded by the taxpayer in Sweden, about 8% of the total.

Edinburgh city council has overturned plans to privatise 2,000 jobs

decision came just weeks after Mitie, the Bristol-based outsourcer, had been appointed preferred bidder on the £30m to £50m a year contract, which included school dinners, administrative work and the local authority’s help desk.

with Labour and Scottish National party councillors uniting against the agreement, the local authority has decided to keep the work in-house

CHSRF Series of reports on cost drivers and health system efficiency: Paper 6

Currently, provider fees are largely based on the costs to deliver the service, not the relative value-for-money of the new service. This approach means providers may have little to no incentive to perform high-value services compared to low-value services.

Health technology assessment (HTA) examines the medical, economic, social and ethical implications of the use of medical technologies, services and procedures. Because it has the capacity to capture value, HTA is considered an effective tool in making policy decisions to develop professional fees in response to the availability of new health technologies. In theory, using HTA to inform the price of a provider fee can lead to reductions in net expenditures while increasing payments to providers.

Brockville Recorder and Times Wed May 20 2015

Since fears for the future of Brockville General Hospital's maternity ward became public in February, there has been a consistent chorus of voices calling on the public to "speak up" for local health care. Now, with three consecutive meetings dedicated to the future of local or regional health services, local residents cannot argue they did not have a chance to be heard. There has been plenty of speaking up already, in the form of social media advocacy and a rally in front of BGH by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) in April.

If it's more advocacy-driven events one seeks, there is always the Ontario Health Coalition's "Public Meeting to Save Our Hospital Services," scheduled for Thursday, May 28, at 7 p.m. at the Brockville Convention Centre. However, it would be wrong to underestimate the importance of the public meetings organized by local health care institutions. On Tuesday, the South East Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) held a public open house seeking input on the future of regional health services. The event drew many people already involved with BGH and its operations, in particular hospital board members, as well as members of the broader general public. Not counting those already in the sector, organizers say, the four-hour event drew 38 people. Their input will contribute toward the development of a health care plan for the broader region of Southeastern Ontario.

Twenty-six registered nurses will lose their current jobs with the Horizon Health Network as it moves on a plan to make more than $4 million in cuts from the organization's annual budget.

A prominent Miramichi doctor says the change is permanently slashing into the number of acute care beds in the province which will negatively affect patient care.

The nurses were laid off due to the reassignment of alternate level of care patients to new designated units which will operate under a different model of care using more licensed practical nurses and patient service workers in place of registered nurses.

Many workers involved in the delivery of public services such as health and social care, municipal services and public administration, among others, are facing hardship and loss of jobs as a result of austerity cuts, unfair trade, repressive regimes and attacks on labour rights. With unemployment on the rise, along with a reduction of public services, workers are often forced to leave their home countries in search of a ‘’better life” elsewhere. Unfortunately, many of them end up risking their lives in crossing borders and, even when they succeed, they might face situations of exploitation, abuse and precarious work.

tens of thousands of Ontario patients are going without the treatments or services they need to function as best they can at home or in their communities.

Matthews, who has been health minister since 2009, has watched over her ministry as it quietly allowed vital services and funding in rehabilitation services — physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech-language therapy, dietitians and social work — to be slashed across the province.

In recent years, hospitals from Ottawa to Toronto and Windsor have closed or drastically reduced their in-patient and outpatient therapy departments

Today, at Anishnawbe Mushkiki Aboriginal Health Access Centre in Thunder Bay, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care Dr. Eric Hoskins, alongside his colleagues David Zimmer, Minister of Aboriginal Affairs, Michael Gravelle, Minister of Northern Development and Mines, and Ontario Regional Chief Isadore Day, made a ground-breaking announcement of the largest investment in Indigenous health care in Ontario’s history. This investment includes the establishment of up to 10 new or expanded Indigenous-centred primary health care teams that include traditional healing to serve Indigenous communities across the province, similar to the existing network of 10 Aboriginal Health Access Centres (AHACs).

Unique in Canada and made in Ontario, AHACs are Indigenous community-led primary health care organizations that embed Indigenous cultural practices and teachings at the heart of everything they do. They provide a comprehensive array of health and social services to Indigenous communities across Ontario. These services include primary care, traditional healing, mental wellness, addictions services, cultural programs, health promotion programs, early years programs, oral health care, community development initiatives, home and community care and social support services. Importantly, they work on healing the impacts of intergenerational trauma. Being community-governed, AHACs are able to respond to the specific geographic, socioeconomic and cultural needs of the diverse Indigenous communities they serve.