{"id":4784,"date":"2016-05-29T17:03:53","date_gmt":"2016-05-29T21:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/?p=4784"},"modified":"2020-05-08T15:47:25","modified_gmt":"2020-05-08T19:47:25","slug":"liberals-strangling-small-town-hospitals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/index.php\/liberals-strangling-small-town-hospitals\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberals strangling small-town hospitals"},"content":{"rendered":"

(May 29, 2016)<\/p>\n

TORONTO\u00a0–\u00a0<\/span>The prognosis is dire.<\/p>\n

Deep cuts to the province\u2019s hospitals have left them on life support.<\/p>\n

Sydenham District Hospital in Wallaceburg is symptomatic of the squeeze that\u2019s strangling small-town hospitals across the province.<\/p>\n

The community was asked to pitch in and raise cash for a new palliative-care unit. Residents rose to the challenge \u2014 raising $100,000. Five years later, the unit was closed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey lost their palliative care unit and people have to move away from their hometown to die,\u201d said Natalie Mehra, of the Ontario Health Coalition \u2014 a group that\u2019s fighting drastic cuts to the province\u2019s hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhole towns have donated \u2014 sometimes through payroll deductions. Those towns have donated for 100 years,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Mehra and her group are planning a provincewide referendum calling on the Liberal government to restore funding to hospitals and come up with a rational plan, based on a bed count, for hospital planning.<\/p>\n

She said the province is deliberately planning for chaos and on moving patients out as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cOntario is planning purposely to run its hospitals in crisis perpetually,\u201d Mehra told a Toronto Sun editorial board last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe point is to keep the pressure on clinicians to force the patients out even when they\u2019re not comfortable with the frailty of the patients,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Patients are pushed out the hospital doors earlier, prompting more hospital re-admissions.<\/p>\n

Instead of spending money on hospitals and nurses, we\u2019ve increased the number of \u201ctechnocrats,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are livid at the hospital CEO salaries, which have gone up far faster than the rate of inflation,\u201d added Mehra. \u201cPeople are livid at the technocratic revolution that\u2019s happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government has spawned a hospital bureaucracy that fills buildings and costs big bucks, but doesn\u2019t add one more health professional to the system.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re calling for is a capacity plan to attach planning to actual population need for care,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do they decide where they\u2019re building new hospitals and how many beds will be in them?\u201d<\/p>\n

She believes some hospital decisions are politically motivated. Plans to redevelop the West Lincoln Hospital in Grimsby were shelved, despite it being a high-growth area. Mehra speculated that decision may have been taken because the hospital was located in the riding of former PC leader Tim Hudak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community had already raised 50%. It had been approved in the budget. It happens to be in Tim Hudak\u2019s riding, and in the next budget they cancelled the capital redevelopment. So this growing community doesn\u2019t deserve a hospital after it has fundraised and been approved at every level for a decade and a half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mehra questioned the government\u2019s policy that closes beds in favour of having patients cared for at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they\u2019re closing down operating rooms or cutting down on chemotherapy, that\u2019s not being replaced at home,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The whole system is gridlocked. Tertiary care hospitals cannot discharge to the community hospitals because there aren\u2019t enough beds.<\/p>\n

Tory health critic Jeff Yurek insisted the government needs to keep politics out of decision-making.<\/p>\n

\u201cFunding should be determined by patient need. What we do know is that government mismanagement is causing cuts at the expense of patients across the board,\u201d Yurek said.<\/p>\n

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath argued that the Liberals\u2019 cuts must stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cPatients in rural Ontario, in the north, and in our towns and cities, are paying the price,\u201d she said. \u201cPeople know that you cannot improve health care by cutting hospitals. Premier Wynne has to stop firing health-care workers. She has to stop hospital overcrowding.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she has to restore stable, predictable funding to hospitals across the province that, at a bare minimum, keeps up with inflation and population growth year after year.\u201d<\/p>\n

A health ministry spokesman said health care is about more than just hospitals.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about the front-line staff that provide care,\u201d the spokesman said. \u201cThat\u2019s why our government continues to increase the number of nurses working in Ontario.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Liberals have added more than 26,000 nurses \u2014 including 11,000 registered nurses.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a growth rate of 23.7% \u2014 almost double the increase of Ontario\u2019s population during the same period. And, as the independent College of Nurses of Ontario clearly states, there were almost 3,000 net-new nursing positions in Ontario last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the 11th consecutive year of growth \u2014 a fact the Ontario Health Coalition doesn\u2019t acknowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n

To sign up to the coalition\u2019s hospital referendum, go toontariohealthcoalition.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n

MAKING THE CUTS<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n