(May 6, 2016)<\/p>\n
Author: Lynne Brown, SaultOnline<\/p>\n
Folgo DellaVedova, Past President of the Sault & Area Health Coalition opened a Town Hall Meeting at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 25 on May 5th, 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are here to raise awareness and speak out about systematic hospital and health care concerns in our community.\u201d said Della Vedova.\u00a0 \u201cTo put pressure on the Ontario Government to stop serious financial cuts to hospital services.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Town Hall was an opportunity for local residents of Sault Ste. Marie & area to learn more about a month long Ontario Health Coalition Referendum Campaign, urging the province to stop the systemic and ongoing cuts to hospital funding.<\/p>\n
The referendum question is simple, and reads: \u2018Ontario\u2019s government must stop the cuts to our community hospitals and restore services, funding and staff to meet our communities\u2019 needs for care.\u2019\u00a0 Answer: Yes or No.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe OHC represents of over 400 member organizations, local health coalitions, including seniors groups, unions, health professionals and more.\u201d said DellaVedova. \u201cThe mandate is to protect and improve the public health care system striving for universal health care, that is public, comprehensive, accessible, and portable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Margo Dale, current chair of The Sault & Area Health Coalition shared local stories and real situations from citizens in The Sault, where the Sault Area Hospital and a \u201cSystem breakdown resulted in creating havoc in their lives and negatively impacted the care they received.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are tired of the rhetoric from MPP David Orazietti who keeps using phrases like \u2018Health Transformation\u2019.\u201d said Dale.<\/p>\n
Dale listed a litany of stories emerging from people who have experienced funding cuts to SAH. Stories that involve infections, lack of infection control, dietary problems, nutritional requirements not addressed, lack of housekeeping staff, laboratory waiting times, staff shortages in all departments, lack of dignity for patients who are waiting along corridors in emergency; patients who are left to their own devices, sometimes without assistance for long periods of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know that staff are mentally drained, and morale is at an all time low at Sault Area Hospital. Staff are working under extreme conditions. We know that they are working under conditions that are very difficult. This Referendum is about funding cuts, not about the staff who are on the frontline, providing care, and are doing their absolute best. It\u2019s the administration putting pressure on the entire system that is harming our hospital.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peter DeLuca, SSM Coalition member spoke about his own family experience, and the trauma that his family members went through recently at SAH. Calling on the assembled to rally and get proactive for change, DeLuca said, \u201cWe need to stir the ripples and make waves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Glenda Hubley, RN (registered nurse), with over 36 years experience,\u00a0\u00a0 has seen the adverse affects of systemic funding cuts to hospitals. \u00a0Hubley works at SAH and is the Bargaining Unit President\/Local Coordinator for ONA, Local 46. \u201cWe know that our service is vital to the community. The SAH base operating funding has been frozen for the last four years. In this year, the Ontario Budget has provided a minimal increase; 1\/3 of 1% is all that our hospital is getting. That\u2019s 60 million spread over 150 hospitals. We\u2019re not even meeting the inflation rates.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
With respect to a story shared at the town hall meeting involving cataract surgery costing $200.00, paid by the patient to the surgeon, Hubley said, \u201cLast year, the same procedure required $100.00. That\u2019s a 100 % increase. We shouldn\u2019t be paying anything in a public system.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hubley said, \u201cHospitals should never cut at the bedside. They should never cut direct care providers. When nursing hours are cut, it is going to have an impact on care. It is totally unacceptable. Especially in complex and medically unstable patients. Budgets are being determined on the backs of direct funding to nursing care.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hubley spoke about IAC\u2019s (Independent Assessment Committee), and that, through ONA, there has been a third complaint brought against SAH.<\/p>\n
\u201cSAH is the first in our province to have three IAC\u2019s. It\u2019s unimaginable to have three. It speaks volumes about how the CEO and Nursing administration at SAH feel about patient care.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018An Independent Assessment Committee \u2013 or IAC \u2013 addresses the professional workload complaints of registered nurses. A hearing is called only when the nurses and management have attempted at length to settle workload issues internally. It is a rare, last-resort effort to determine whether nurses are being assigned more work than is consistent with the provision of proper patient care. However, in the case of Sault Area Hospital, this was the third such hearing to be requested by the RNs since 2012, making SAH the first hospital in the province to have had three IAC hearings to investigate patient care concerns.\u2019<\/p>\n
ONA is the union representing 60,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals across Ontario, as well as more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.<\/p>\n
Hubley went on to say \u201cIn 2005, SAH ended 26 RN positions. This is on top of the 27 RN\u2019s cut from the previous year. These 27 RN positions were cut and never replaced.\u00a0 We have a full 30 bed wing that has been closed. It\u2019 there, but it\u2019s not being used. We don\u2019t have enough funded beds.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMore than 100,000 hours of nurses time have been lost over the last few years. Nurses are a dedicated group of professionals and want to provide critical care; we have extensive training and expertise. We are the sacrificial lambs in the organization. Any Hospital CEO that claims that RN cuts will not affect patient care is not being straightforward with you.\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cResearch has shown that cutting RN\u2019s in hospitals increases the risk of complications by 7% including higher risk for infections, diseases and death.<\/p>\n
\u2018Failure to Rescue\u2019 is an increasing concern for Hubley.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe only have one RN for 1,000 patients. The CEO\u2019s are not fighting on your behalf, but we are. Ontario (hospitals) is already known as the second lowest for patient \u2013 RN ratio in all of Canada.\u201d she said. \u00a0\u201cWe need your help, to help us get a clear message to the Ontario government to stop the funding cuts.\u201d<\/p>\n
In an April 6,2016 ONA media release, it was stated that a nurse expert panel was called in to review patient safety at Sault Area Hospital.\u00a0 \u201cConcerned that unsafe RN staffing levels have compromised patient safety, registered nurse (RN) members of the Ontario Nurses\u2019 Association (ONA) have called in an Independent Assessment Committee to examine the issue. ONA First Vice-President Vicki McKenna, RN notes that \u201cregistered nurses in this busy Medical Unit are concerned that they\u2019re unable to meet their professional standards because base staffing isn\u2019t sufficient to cover patient care needs or the fluctuations in the acuity and volume of patients here. It seems as though balancing the budget has taken precedence at the expense of the care patients receive.\u201d April 6th, 2016 found here: (https:\/\/www.ona.org\/news_details\/SAH_IAC_20160406.html)<\/p>\n
Sharon Richer, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions\/CUPE shared\u00a0 firsthand knowledge of cuts to hospitals through her work at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, Ont. She reflected on the impact that funding shortages have had on smaller community hospitals, like Matthew\u2019s Hospital on St. Josephs Island, New Liskeard, Timmins, and North Bay Regional Hospital (P3 Hospital).<\/p>\n
Sarah\u00a0 Labelle, OPSEU Regional Vice-President, Region 3, is a medical laboratory technologist with over 16 years experience in health care. Labelle said, \u201cAll of these cuts are a concerted\u00a0 effort by this (provincial) government to privatize the health care services that everyone relies on.\u00a0 You starve it; then you break it; then you buy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur (Ontario) government has a pathological obsession to privatize health care; to privatize the thing that defines Canadians.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labelle spoke about long waiting times for laboratory tests, and by extension, a patient receiving those same tests within a privatized option.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019ll be so grateful to get services after waiting so long, however\u00a0 you will end up purchasing them. Paying for services out of pocket is shameful, and it\u2019s a violation of the Canada Health Care Act.\u201d<\/p>\n
A woman at the Town Hall shared a story with respect to a journey she has been on with her husband. After several days in I.C.U. and then to the step-down post surgical floor at Health Sciences North in Sudbury, he was discharged after about 17 days. The surgery was very complex and lasted approx. 7 hours. Shortly upon return to Sault, he had to go to SAH for blood work. He was in considerable pain, and was quite weak. They were directed to go to SAH for a specific time. However, they ended up waiting for over 2 hours, in a cramped and over-crowded room for a laboratory technician.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish I had a dollar for every time our Minister of Health said that they (Ontario gov\u2019t) are investing in community health care. The last time I checked, hospitals are part of the community.\u201d said Labelle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no end in sight.\u201d shared OHC\u2019s Executive Director Natalie Mehra. \u201cOntario\u2019s overall funding for hospitals has been vying for last place in all of Canada.\u201d\u00a0 Quebec has that dubious distinction.<\/p>\n
\u201cNine years in a row, Ontario has not kept up with inflation rates.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis voluntary Referendum is an opportunity to voice your concerns. Ballot boxes, driven through volunteers and local health coalitions will set up polling stations throughout Ontario communities.\u201d said Mehra.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the type of action that a government will ignore at their peril. It\u2019s the kind of action that changes (gov\u2019t) policy. We know that the vast majority of Ontario citizens share our concerns for hospital funding \u201d<\/p>\n
May 28th will be the final day for voting in the Referendum. The OHC is hoping to garner over 200,000 votes. Once all of the votes have been tabulated, the Referendum ballots will be brought to the Ontario legislature on Tuesday, May 31st.<\/p>\n