August 3, 2019 by Graeme MacKay
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday July 27, 2019
Ontario's health reforms loaded with risk and reward
This week The St. Catharines Standard and The Hamilton Spectator did something uncommon. The sister news organizations published a joint investigative feature on health-care reform in Ontario.
We did it together because the issues and challenges involved are shared by citizens of Hamilton and Niagara. The Local Health Integration Network, to be replaced by a new oversight body, covered both regions. It made sense to share our joint expertise, personified by Joanna Frketich of The Spectator and Grant LaFleche of The Standard.
We're proud of the series, which is the most comprehensive reporting on the most significant reform to Ontario's health system in recent history. We explained what we could, and were forthright about what we don't know — which is a lot given the vagueness and lack of detail in the strategy.
That's the worry. There is great potential in the reform plan. While we are not among those who describe the current system as broken, there's no doubt it is underperforming, and too often failing health-care consumers. So you cannot fault the Ford government for wanting to improve the system, especially at a time when an aging population will increase use of and stress on health care.
There is also great risk, as there would be with any attempt to change something as vast, complex and critical as health care. If it's not done right, the costs could be very high. Unfortunately, this government's track record at getting things right is not stellar. The autism debacle. Public health cuts that had to be temporarily reversed. Breaking a beer company contract that will probably cost millions. Killing cap and trade for ideological reasons, forcing Ottawa to implement a carbon tax, and depriving towns and cities in millions from cap-and-trade revenue.
Can we trust the Ford government to get health reform right?
The government's reform blueprint is called the Connecting Care Act. Read it and you'll be surprised by the lack of detail. We know that an uncertain number of Ontario Health Teams (OHT) will be put in place. They will be made up of health-care stakeholders — hospitals, primary care (family docs and family health teams), community-based and long-term care providers. They will provide the local input on health care across the spectrum. They will report to a new super agency, called Ontario Health.
In and of itself, this structure is puzzling. Part of the province's rationale is to reduce bureaucracy. But in the future, instead of having LHINs, we'll have OHTs, reporting to the new super agency, which presumably reports to the ministry of health. This isn't a smaller bureaucracy, it's the opposite.
The new system also collapses previously independent health agencies, such as Cancer Care Ontario, under one umbrella. But CCO is recognized as a world leader. Does it really make sense to break what isn't broken in cancer care?
It's also the same model Alberta has had in place for years. And health-care costs in that province have not gone down under the super agency system, they've gone up to a point where Alberta has higher per patient costs than any other province.
It's not all bad news. Innovative initiatives, liked Bundled Care, which was developed at St. Joseph's Healthcare in Hamilton, will be rolled out across the province, promising shorter hospital stays with remote support provided to patients at home.
Once it comes back from its extended summer holiday, health reform will be prominent in the news, and we'll continue to cover and try to explain it. For Ontarians who care, and we all should, this wave of reform demands close scrutiny and robust public discussion. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)
Posted in: Ontario	Tagged: 2019-27, Beer, Buck-a-beer, Doug Ford, emergency, Hallway healthcare, Hamilton, health, health care, Hospital, overcrowding, patients
Friday December 15, 2017
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday December 15, 2017
Overcrowded Ontario hospitals 'on the brink,' province warned
Overcrowding at Ontario hospitals has become so serious that the sector is "on the brink" of a "crisis," warns its umbrella organization, using uncharacteristically alarming language.
Leaders from the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) plan to go to Queen's Park to plead their case for more funding on Thursday. They are seeking a 4.55 per cent increase in operating funding for 2018-19, according to their prebudget submission, an advanced copy of which has been obtained by the Star.
That amounts to an extra $815 million and would bring the sector's total operating allocation for the next fiscal year to about $18.8 billion.
The organization's submission to the province's finance committee is titled "A Sector on the Brink: The Case for a Significant investment in Ontario's Hospitals." It states that patient occupancy at about half of the province's 143 hospital corporations exceeded 100 per cent this past summer, normally a slower time of year for the sector. Occupancy at some hospitals was as high as 140 per cent while the international standard for safe occupancy is 85 per cent.
A section of the seven-page submission highlights the "warning signs of an imminent capacity crisis." Among them: growing wait times, higher emergency department volumes, and infrastructure and equipment that is "run down, at the end of their life, or outdated."
States the document: "Emergency departments, for example, are a critical barometer for how the health care system is functioning — and the warning alarm is sounding loudly."
When wait times for the month of September are compared for the last seven years, they hit their highest level this year for patients admitted to hospitals through emergency departments. Ten per cent of patients waited about 32 hours before being moved to in-patient beds. (Source: Toronto Star)
Posted in: Ontario	Tagged: Budget, health, hospitals, Kathleen Wynne, Ontario, overcrowded, overcrowding