CUPE Health Care

The provinces are certainly not equal in their fiscal capacity. Indeed, if one looks at per capita own-source revenues, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan and Alberta are well above the provincial average as a result of their natural resource revenues. Meanwhile, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Ontario are below the average while Manitoba and British Columbia are at about the average.

The provinces are also not equal in their rates of population growth, the rates at which their population is aging, the proportion of aboriginal or immigrant population, or the incidence of various diseases.

In 2011-12, Ottawa transferred about $58 billion in cash to the provincial and territorial governments. The three main provincial cash transfer programs are the Canada Health Transfer at $27 billion, the Canada Social Transfer (for child, post-secondary education and social programs) at about $12 billion and Equalization (funds for those provinces with a weaker fiscal capacity) at almost $15 billion.

Louie said the private hospital has the endorsement of more than 90 per cent of band members.A returning officer’s report of a special membership meeting and secret ballot vote that took place last summer, shows 506 band members were eligible to vote, but only 77 did. Of the ballots cast, 65 were in favour of a business partnership with a company called Ad Vitam to develop the medical facility, and 12 were opposed.

Carolyn Daniels says a revised fee system for special-care services imposed by the operator of an Ottawa retirement home will force her mother out of her room.

additional costs of $1,793 a month

At Westwood, Revera includes a long-term care component. The care is similar to what it offers in its nursing homes.

Ontario nursing home inspectors are so overwhelmed with abuse and other complaints that many of the government’s rigorous new annual inspections will be delayed as long as five years, says the public service union.

In 2011, the ministry received 2,719 complaints from staff, families or other sources. They include critical incidents, such as sexual or physical assault, and important but less urgent issues, such as complaints about unappealing food.

the annual home inspection, which picks up on problems before they become serious

"Convalescent care" beds are a form of "short-stay" beds in long-term care (LTC) facilities.  Convalescent beds receive an extra $70.94 more per day than standard long-term care beds.  That's 45.7% more funding than the $155.18 for a standard bed.   Started in 2005, the LTC "convalescent care" program is now a “Home First Program” that is designed, in part, to reduce hospital Alternate Level of Care (ALC) days.

The for-profit section of the long-term care industry sees convalescent care as a growth part of the LTC industry.

the average length of stay as the length of stay for the short-stay long term care beds varies from 25 to 65 days, while the ‘long term’ LTC beds have an average stay of 3.1 years

And second, a lid must be placed on APP program payments. Funding for benefit and incentive programs should be folded into the negotiation of fee schedules, recognizing that they are, like fees, simply part of the average prices physicians receive for their services.

the coming increases in numbers have, once again, foreclosed for decades the possibilities for exploiting the full competence of complementary and substitute health personnel, expanding interprofessional team practice and in general, shifting the mix

Including rapid growth in net immigration, the annual "crop" has nearly doubled.

The first video presents a panel of experts who take turns debunking the myths that the public system is too expensive and that privatization would cut both costs and waiting lists. This is the full-length version of the video; smaller excerpts focusing on specific issues will be available soon for easy sharing.

The second video features highlights from a speech by former UK health secretary Frank Dobson at CUPE’s National Health Care Sector Meeting held in Victoria in the Fall of 2010. Dobson uses his own personal experience to debunk the myths surrounding privatization. It's a must see!

The rationale behind that recommendation is not particularly compelling to start with for the committee found that the billions of federal dollars spent under those very terms as a result of the accord failed to lead to the transformation of the system

it will likely not divert the Harper government from its hands-off approach to medicare

“The greatest enemy, I think, to the future of health care in Canada is government complacency at the federal level. That is the enemy of good health care for Canadians,” he adds, noting that there was no mention of health care even for those for whom the federal government has jurisdictional responsibility for providing care, such as Aboriginal peoples, prison inmates and veterans.

the changes in the old age security eligibility (phasing in the age of retirement to 67 from 65 commencing in 2023), target “an already vulnerable population. My patients have a choice between food, heating and drugs and a lot of them skip their medications because they can’t afford it and that’s going to get worse. We don’t have a pharmaceutical strategy to deal with the fact that chronic disease requires constant or prolonged medication.

Nor was there anything to deal with ongoing drug shortages

Ontario is also the only province whose ombudsman cannot investigate hospitals and long-term care facilities.

I am confident that they would perform better if they were subject to the scrutiny of my office

Many of the problems identified in the CIHI survey — less-than-adequate nursing care, mortality rates, administration costs — are issues that Ontarians have brought to my office in the past. Every year, we hear from hundreds of patients and their loved ones who say they’ve endured inadequate care, unsafe conditions, even neglect and abuse in hospitals. In the fiscal year just ended, we received some 375 complaints about Ontario hospitals that we were forced to turn away. I can only imagine how many we would receive if we were actually able to act on those complaints.

this video from the show Marketplace on CBC

Understaffing, contracting out, and overcrowding are shown to cause dirtier hospitals and more preventable infections.

CUPE drew attention to these problems in a research paper and national tour on health care associated infections, and we continue to lobby for public solutions: microbiological cleaning standards, more inhouse cleaning staff, lower hospital occupancy, and mandatory public reporting.

Saskatchewan's premier is pushing for reforms to health care that he says include bold targets and new ways of delivering services.

isn't sustainable," Wall said

He'll speak to the group and take part in a panel discussion with economist Don Drummond and Globe and Mail journalist Andr� Picard.

William Charney, a Seattle-based consultant and author of “Epidemic of Medical Errors and Hospital Acquired Infections: Systemic and Social Causes,” along with the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, is holding a one-day conference on June 4th in Toronto

The conference will address some of the biggest contributors to the systemic and social causes of the epidemic of medical errors and HAIs in the US and Canada.

Along with William Charney, a 30-year expert as a health and safety officer in healthcare, speakers include: Joe and Terry Graedon, Kathleen Bartholomew, and Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE (OCHU)

The Hospital Employees’ Union is raising the alarm about Lower Mainland health authorities’ plan to completely contract out in-house medical transcription

costs for limited outsourcing of this service ballooned from $2.4 million to $6 million in just four years

an HEU investigation of health authorities’ financial documents show that Ontario-based Accentus Inc. – a for-profit medical transcription firm – increased its billings to PHC and the three other health authorities by 151 per cent between the fiscal years 2006/2007 and 2010/2011.

This report reviews the state of Canadian public opinion on healthcare, focusing on trends over the past five years. It combines a discussion of public opinion with an analysis of media content on healthcare issues.

reviewing results from all recent and readily available commercial polling on healthcare

content analysis of more than 100,000 articles on healthcare in major Canadian English- and French-language dailies from the past 15 years

Thursday, May 24th, 201212:00pm ET

Nothing matters more, individually or collectively, than our health. Regardless of political allegiance, there is near unanimity that a universal health system is a good thing – for reasons of economics and social justice.

every other developed country has universal health care that is better, fairer and cheaper than ours

Canadian health care is a $200-billion-a-year enterprise with no clear goals and a dearth of leadership.

Six Canadian hospitals are part of ThedaCare, a group of North American health care facilities using the Toyota principals as their business strategy.

The Saskatoon Health Region recently announced it had identified $800,000 in lost time associated with scheduling problems thanks to lean.

For the Michigan study, operating room employers mapped out their normal work flow, identifying root causes of “muda,” the Japanese term for valueless work. Researchers then measured operating room turnover time (the time between the departure of one patient and arrival of the next) and turnaround time (the time between the final dressing on one patient and the first incision on the next). When lean changes were enforced, turnover time dropped 30 per cent to 29 minutes and turnaround time dropped 20 per cent to 69 minutes. Automated alerts to janitorial staff cut room cleaning times.

An act buried in the Ontario Liberal government’s mammoth budget bill makes sweeping changes that open the door to privatizing almost any crown corporation or government service, and will lead to more back-room deals, CUPE Ontario President Fred Hahn and lawyer Steven Shrybman exposed at a Queen’s Park press conference

released a new legal opinion written by Shrybman

“This act opens the door to privatizing every public service in the province, even contracting OHIP services out to an American HMO, all without the approval of the Legislature, and all without any scrutiny