I am sorry for a very detailed post, but it is worth reading as it describe the overall condition of Ontario hospitals.

Ontario's population is growing at fast pace but Government is closing down hospitals and schools. Downgrading of such services effected Ontarians' life drastically and unfortunately there is no sign of relief in the near future.

Thanks and regards.
Biomed
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Ontario Health Coalition HEALTH FACTS- HOSPITALS
Hospitals Fact Sheet #1
HOSPITALS ORDERED CLOSED BY THE HSRC:
Brockville Psychiatric Hospital
Hotel Dieu-Grace Site (Windsor)
Hotel Dieu Hospital (Kingston)
Providence Continuing Care Centre, St. Vincent de Paul site (Kingston)
Hamilton Psychiatric Hospital
St. Peter's Hospital (Hamilton)
St. Joseph's Hospital (Chatham)
Northumberland HealthCare Corp., Port Hope site
St. Joseph's Health Centre (Peterborough)
St. Joseph's Hospital (Brantford)
St. Joseph's Health Centre (London)
London Health Sciences Centre, South St. site
London Psychiatric Hospital
St. Thomas Psychiatric Hospital
St. Bernard's Hospital
Wellesley-Central Hospital (Toronto)
Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hillcrest site (Toronto)
Toronto: Doctors Hospital
Humber River Regional Hospital, Northwestern site (Toronto)
Orthopedic & Arthritic Hospital (Toronto)
Riverdale Hospital (Toronto)
Runnymeade Chronic Care Hospital (Toronto)
Salvation Army Grace Hospital (Toronto)
Whitby General Hospital
Salvation Army Grace Hospital (Ottawa)
Pembroke Civic Hospital
Sudbury Memorial Hospital
Subbury General Hospital
Thunder Bay Regional Hospital, McKellar site
Hogarth-Westmount Hospital (Thunder Bay)
Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital (Thunder Bay)
Lakefield Hospital (private)
Sidbrook Hospital (private)
Grace Villa (private)
Dewson Hospital (private)
TORY HEALTH CARE: Cuts, Cuts and More Cuts...
• 35 hospitals ordered closed with more to come
• $800 million cut from hospital budgets
• Length of hospital stay at an all-time low forcing patients out of hospital quicker and sicker than ever before
• Fees of up to $41.56/day for Alternative Level of Care hospital patients waiting for placement
• 5780 acute care beds and 2445 chronic beds cut since 1994
• Thousands of hospital workers cut
• Half of psychiatric hospitals closed and 40% of all beds to be cut
• Patients on stretchers in emergency waiting for care and on, and on, and on . . .
SOME FACTS AND STATISTICS
• FACT:
The provincial government has cut hospital budgets by $800 million: $365 million in 1996/97. A further 6%, or $435 million was cut in 97-98.

• FACT:
Length of Stay in hospitals is at an all-time low, forcing patients out quicker and sicker than ever before. In 1993/94, average length of stay for acute care was 7.0 days and for chronic care, 211. By 1997-98, these were cut to 6.4 and 1411. More cuts are on their way.
• FACT:
Co-payments for Alternative Level of Care patients waiting for chronic or long-term care placement have been increased and exemption periods have been eliminated. These fees can be up to $41.56/day or $12642. Meanwhile, there are not enough beds in long-term care facilities and standards of care have been slashed. Waiting lists for long term care facilities are at 18,2983! These co-payments also apply to all designated chronic care patients in chronic units of acute hospitals or in chronic care hospitals.

• FACT:
Since 1994, 5780 acute care beds and 2445 chronic beds have been cut from the system with thousands more to come4. Most of the beds are still there but they are not in service. Closed beds and staff cuts are the key reasons that patients lie on stretchers in Emergency or are not admitted and ambulances are placed on re-direct.

• FACT:
Patients are suffering from the huge cuts in staff. In a recent provincial survey published by the University of Toronto, almost half of the people surveyed rated availability of staff and timeliness of getting things done as "fair" or "poor"5. The Health Sector Training and Adjustment Panel (HSTAP) reported over 26,000 layoffs in the hospital sector between June 1992 to May 1997. Prior to being closed down by the Harris government, HSTAP predicted that additional job loss associated with the HSRC recommended closure of 24 hospitals could be as high as 17,500. Since 35 hospitals have now been ordered closed, with more to come, thousands more hospital workers will be laid off.
• FACT:
Government health policy has been a disaster for psychiatric patients and people with mental health needs. By 1997, there were only about 5,200 beds left in the province's general and psychiatric hospitals for the seriously mentally ill. The government is closing another 40% of these beds over the next few years, or about 2,000 beds! Half of the provinces 10 psychiatric hospitals are to be closed. The number of psychiatric beds in general hospitals will drop from 28 beds/100,00 population to 21/100,00 by 2003. Longer term psychiatric beds will drop from 32 beds/100,000 to only 14 beds/100,0006.
• FACT:
A "very poorly planned" overhaul of Ontario's hospitals has left the sector with a $1.7 billion debt that's sucking money away from patient services, " said Ontario Hospital Association President David McKinnon. "Has the government actually saved money? The answer is 'No'" when you look closely at the impact of these funding cuts on hospitals, the alleged savings have been hidden in hospital debts. "This growth in debt cannot really continue because growth in interest payments inhibits hospitals by preventing them from spending enough on new medical equipment, new communications technology and especially training in staff development." In addition, the $2 billion in capital money set aside for restructuring may be only half of what hospitals need. McKinnon said that hospital deficits could reach $200 million annually in the next fiscal year and an accumulated debt of $1.7 billion at the end of 1997-987.
The Coroner's Jury reviewing the death of 5 year old Kyle Martyn at Credit Valley Hospital on Feb. 12, 1998, made numerous recommendations that they hoped "would help alleviate the serious problems in the Ontario health care system and result in improved health care services to all Ontario citizens. The public expects a certain level of health care and the Provincial Government must ensure that it is not compromised through underfunding." Among numerous recommendations, the jury said: That there be no further closure of long term or acute care beds until the provincial bed shortage is resolved and replacement beds are opened and that, under no circumstances should volunteers be situated at the triage desk or involved in obtaining patient complaint information.
Dr. D. Anna Jarvis, Dept of Paediatrics, Division of Emergency Services, Hospital for Sick Children was asked to review the Emergency Chart. The following is a portion of her findings in her report filed with the Coroner Inquest: "In my opinion, Kyle Martyn's experience illustrates clearly a serious systemic problem with out current healthcare system. Patients admitted to hospital in Ontario are almost universally significantly ill and in need of medical, nursing and other professional re-evaluation and care. There are inadequate resources (personnel, space, equipment) to allow an appropriate triage process to be completed in a timely fashion. High new patient volumes result in excessive waits for initial triage and inadequate reassessment of triaged patients awaiting emergency medical care"

Hospitals Fact Sheet #2
Ontario has never before seen anything like it - hospitals closed; ambulances on redirect; patients piled up in emergency wards unable to get a bed; thousands of staff, upon whom patients rely, gone; thousands of beds closed; length of stay cut to the bone forcing patients out of hospital quicker and sicker than ever before; new mothers shipped around the province in search of desperately needed neo-natal beds; chronic care patients in turmoil from government plans to close more than 3500 beds; vital services contracted out to the private, for-profit sector; and on, and on, and...;
It has been an unprecedented four years of turmoil. People have been harmed. Some have died. Others have suffered much worse health outcomes.
The tragedy is that it didn't have to be this way
The government refused to listen. It was told time and time again not to proceed with its plans for hospitals unless and until home care and other services and sectors were properly funded and in place to provide care for us.
But the Harris government was so intent on cutting health care to afford it tax cuts, it ignored the many voice of warning. As a result, our once first-class hospital system is a nightmare for the many who rely on it.
To make matters worse, we now learn the government has not intention of adequately funding the other key services in other sectors.
There will always be a need for quality hospital care. Years of cuts and closures have led to diminished levels of care. Staffing and funding to hospitals must be immediately restored. Hospital closures must stop and beds must be reopened before any more harm is done.

HOSPITAL CARE FACTS
• Almost $1 billion cut from hospital budgets

• 45 hospitals ordered closed; others severely cut back and downgraded

• Length of stay at an all-time low forcing patients out of hospital quicker and sicker than ever before

• Thousands of staff, upon whom patients rely, laid off

• Thousands of beds cut, making it much more difficult to get into hospital

• Line ups in emergency rooms and ambulances turned away

• Vital hospital services contracted out to big business

• Rooms, bathrooms and other areas less clean

• Call bells go unanswered

• Family members and friends forced to supplement the missing care

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

Biomed,
Interesting post.
I was curoius what is the source of this article.

I found a similar article

http://www.cnw.ca/fr/releases/archive/March2004/15/c0368.html

It looks like Canadian healthcare is going to be similar to privatized US healthcare system.
The system in US is not pretty, here it is the insurance company and not the doctors who decides the length of hospital stay. Lets hope Ontario does not follow the same path.

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What can be imagined, can be achieved.

This article is from Ontario Health Coalition, there web address is as follows:
http://www.web.net/ohc

The web link to this article is as follows:
http://www.web.net/ohc/docs/fact_hospitalpolicy.htm

This site has quite a few articles on Ontario Health Care System.

Thanks and regards.
Biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

Thanks, it is quite an eye opener.

Hope good sense prevails on the decision makers.

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What can be imagined, can be achieved.

Hope so !!!!!
But let me tell you privatization of health care in Ontario would not be an easy task for any political party.

Thanks and regards.
biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

A SAD and BAD news

Biomed
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For Immediate Release
March 15, 2004

Newly Released Documents Confirm Massive Hospital Privatization


Toronto — In a Queen’s Park press conference, the Ontario Health Coalition and the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions revealed that newly released documents show that Brampton’s planned hospital is definitely a privatized P3 hospital and that all financial records involving over $1 billion in public money are being withheld by the hospital and the government. Included in the released documents are project agreements and parts of leases and subleases, however, all financial information and many other records are omitted or deleted. The Royal Ottawa Hospital still refuses to disclose any documents.


"The documents reveal that the Liberals are going ahead with the privatized P3 hospital negotiated by the Conservatives before they were thrown out of office," said Natalie Mehra, Provincial Coordinator of the Ontario Health Coalition. "If this massive privatization scheme is allowed to continue, the hospital will be operated for profit by a myriad of corporations through intricate lease arrangements and contracts. Services vital to patient care will be privatized for at least 25 years and the corporations and their lawyers stand to make a fortune from public taxes."


"The secrecy surrounding the use of our money is scandalous," added Dora Jeffries, co chair of the Brampton Health Coalition. "We have fought for three years to get the hospital and the government to disclose what they are doing with our money and our hospital, yet they still refuse to publicly divulge any of the financial arrangements and other critical information."


"It is ironic that the Health Minister is waging a campaign on hospital accountability while breaking election promises and signing secret deals", said Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. "This deal shows that P3 hospitals, if not stopped, will usher transnational for-profit corporations into the heart of the Medicare system. Ultimately, their appetite for money will suck funding away from beds and staff threatening universal accessible healthcare."


(A complete list of disclosures and secrets is contained in the media information provided on the Ontario Health Coalition website at http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca)" rel="nofollow">LINK

Disclosed in the documents:


The hospital will be privately financed and operated for profit. The services are bundled into the lease -- including services vital to patient care - and paid for through the complex lending agreement over at least 25 years.


The deal provides for the privatization of services at 7 hospitals. The services of the Brampton hospital will be privatized but the complete list of privatized services is deleted. The deal provides also for privatization of services at the Georgetown Hospital and the Etobicoke Hospital. The deal provides also for the WOHC to request that Project Co at any time privatize services at Trillium Health Centre (Mississauga and Queensway sites), Halton Healthcare Services Corp (including Oakville, Trafalgar and Milton Sites).


There are a myriad of private for-profit corporations involved, including five different versions of Carillion (the service privatizer), a Realty Co, a Project Co, and the consortium THICC. (Note: Carillion is a large transnational corporation based in Great Britain that has been a key proponent of health system privatization. Carillion has also been the private partner in P3 schemes in Britain that feature long waits for hospital beds, high costs, health and safety violations, accidents and injury - including death, strikes, and record profits.)


The private corporation is allowed to build commercial ventures on the site, including not only privately owned and delivered clinical healthcare services, but ever other kind of business activity with only three specific exceptions: a casino or gaming operation; an adult or sexually themed entertainment establishment; or sale of tobacco and alcoholic products.


The deal involves an intricate maze of leases, subleases, lending agreements, contracts, service agreements, testing protocols, variation procedures, auditing and monitoring protocols, and dispute resolution and arbitration procedures - all of which engender extensive legal, accounting and monitoring costs, as well as potential liabilities - and none of which would be necessary but for the P3.


Items deleted or omitted:


All financial information including the full cost, the schedule of payments to the private corporations, the borrowing rate, the profit etc.


The complete list of services to be privatized.


The Value for Money Report done by the province last spring/summer.


Memos and other government documents pertaining to the deal.


Officers of the corporations and others involved in the deals. We could find no signatures or named representatives in the documents

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch

To have ome details on this you may visit following website:

http://ca.geocities.com/xetuyst/coroners.html

Thanks and regards.
Biomed

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"Change before you have to" : Jack Welch