PC leader would scrap local health networks

BY MOHAMMED ADAM , THE OTTAWA CITIZEN

MARCH 7, 2010

Ontario Tory leader Tim Hudak said Saturday that a Conservative government will abolish the Local Health Integration Network (LHIN) model that the Liberals established with fanfare a few years ago because it has become a "catastrophic failure."

Speaking to reporters at the Progressive Conservative party annual general meeting in Ottawa, Hudak said the LHINs are putting money into the pockets of Liberal friends.

"They are taking hundreds of millions of dollars out of frontline care to feather the pockets of friends of the Liberal government and expensive middle managers," Hudak said.

"We’ve seen the number of people at the LHINs making $100,000 a year, increase by some 150 per cent, I believe in less than three years, so there’s no doubt Dalton McGuinty’s broken LHIN model has got to go."

Hudak said a Conservative government will seek advice from health care experts on how to proceed.

The Champlain LHIN, which represents Eastern Ontario, has been in the crosshairs of the Tories recently after a report, later denied, that it had awarded an untendered contract to the Courtyard Group, a Toronto-area consulting firm with Liberal ties that was caught up in the eHealth scandal.

The Champlain LHIN clarified the report, saying the contract had been tendered and awarded to the lowest bidder — the Courtyard Group.

The other bid was from Deloitte & Touche. A February LHIN statement said that bid was omitted from the contract file "due to a clerical error."

But that didn’t stop the Tories during the Ottawa West-Nepean byelection from constantly linking the Champlain LHIN to the untendered contract scandal.

Created in early 2006, 14 LHINs replaced 16 health councils so that, for the first time in Ontario, regional health authorities would be given power to control their own health care spending and set local health priorities.

The LHINs came under Conservative fire early for costing about double the health council model, but then-health minister George Smitherman said the LHINs, based on regional health authorities in other provinces, would play a much more significant role.

About nine government-appointed board members per LHIN plan, manage and fund everything from hospitals to home care.

The Champlain LHIN serves about 1.1 million people. It includes Ottawa and parts of Renfrew, Lanark, Prescott and Russell, and Stormont Dundas and Glengarry counties.

The LHINs have not been problem-free.

The Champlain LHIN recently had to inject $1.7 million into the region’s home-care program after the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC) overspent its $180-million budget by $6.5 million, prompting the abrupt resignation of program head Sheila Bauer from the $168,000-a-year job back in November.

It left 56,000 dying, disabled and elderly Eastern Ontarians at risk of losing crucial services before the end of the fiscal year on March 31.

And about 300 people had been stranded in hospital beds, causing bed shortages, long emergency-room waits and cancelling surgeries.

In January, interim CCAC boss and vice-president at The Ottawa Hospital Cameron Love said he’d cleared the backlog, stopped the agency from overspending and was finalizing a plan to eliminate its $5.4 million deficit by March 2

Chatham-Kent is the most underserviced community in the province when it comes to family doctors.

But the municipality has been cut out of an Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care program that offered funding to lure badly needed doctors.

"It's a huge loss for us," said Frances Roesch, Chatham-Kent Health Alliance's director of medical affairs and recruitment. "It's very frustrating."

The ministry revamped its medically underserviced area program Friday, adopting new rules that eliminate Chatham-Kent, Sarnia, Woodstock and St. Thomas, along with others in the area, from the provincial incentives.

"Of all the family physicians we've recruited in the past few years . . . they were all able to access funds through the program," Roesch said. "It was incentive money we were able to offer them as the most underserviced area in the province."

She noted the money wasn't coming out of the local physician recruitment wallet and was sometimes used along with incentive money through the Every Life Counts campaign.

Roesch said Chatham-Kent won't be able to access funding through the new ministry program because the municipality isn't considered rural.

In the past, the health ministry used 10 factors, including socio-economic situations and isolation, to decide whether a community was underserviced and could have access to the provincial cash.

That's now being replaced with a so-called "index of rurality," determined by travel time to a referral centre and population density.

To qualify for the incentives, a municipality has to score 40 or above.

'BURG HOSPITAL AN ASSET, NOT A LIABILITY

Sir:I would like to take this opportunity to comment on announcements made recently, by the Erie-St. Clair Local Health Integration Network. Gary Switzer, CEO of the Erie-St. Clair LHIN, has stated that the LHIN's business regarding small community emergency rooms in the LHIN is concluded.. While the fate of the CKHA Sydenham emergency, the Charlotte Eleanor Englehart emergency and the Leamington emergency is considered by Premier McGuinty's Panel on Rural and Northern Health Care, the Erie St. Clair LHIN will now focus on primary care, while directing the hospitals to develop "contingency plans" for the small emergency rooms.

Primary care is obviously an essential element of today's health care. Primary care should involve doctors, nurses and other heath practitioners working together to promote health, offer education, provide treatment for everyday complaints and generally improve the patient's overall health. There should be specialized units dedicated to problems such as diabetes, heart disease, drug addictions, etc.

All of these things are as essential as an emergency department to the local community. Mr. Switzer has been vague about the true meaning of "contingency plans" for the ERs. If the contingency plans are, in fact, transitional plans to turn ERs into urgent care centers, they will simply be part of McGuinty's plan to centralize health care and shut rural hospitals. These plans are supposedly purposed to develop strategies for any "unforeseen problems" in the ER, for example, a physician shortage. The Sydenham ER faces an ongoing struggle to keep physicians, due in part to a CKHA's lack of support for physician recruitment for the Sydenham campus, and for a perceived lack of respect for these physicians who work in our small community hospital.

Health care in Ontario is in turmoil. The Liberal government demands balanced hospital budgets, and this is being accomplished on the backs of patients and health care workers. In late 2009, in Fort Erie, a tragedy happened; a young woman was involved in a car accident, and because the Fort Erie ER had been closed by the government, the ambulance took her to the larger Welland ER, but she died en route.

How many more tragedies are acceptable in the government's eyes? Premier McGuinty talked about his government becoming transparent, and responsible to the public. In October 2009, he noted that the public would judge him. I do not see any responsiveness to Ontario's shouts for more realistic health-care reform. The premier is correct: the public will judge him, come Election Day.

Chatham Kent Health Alliance now has a rare chance to turn the tide toward transparent and realistic change. There is an interim CEO in place, who knows the challenges facing health care today. There is now an opportunity to work with local health-care workers and physicians who know the local system.

Local businessmen have ideas. I hope our leaders will look to the hospitals of Eastern Ontario, including the Ottawa Hospital, CHEO, Cornwall Community Hospital and Queensway-Carlton Hospital who have openly warned about drastic decreases in hospital beds and services, if the

provincial government does not start providing proper funding.

Why not tell the government that the Sydenham campus is a vital part of the Chatham Kent Health Alliance? Instead of looking at Sydenham Campus as a liability, why not choose to see it as a valuable resource, which can support and help the entire catchment area of CKHA? There has to be more than manipulated data and budgetary mandates pushing health care reform.

Why not look to new ideas, which reflect the public's needs and wants?

Health care is an emotional issue for most people, and that emotion springs from people's love for family and friends and community. We all want and deserve to have appropriate health care in our communities, which rotates around a hospital with in-patient beds and a fully manned Emergency room. –
 
Shirley Roebuck, RN Chatham
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

MARIA VAN BOMMEL, M.P.P.

      Lambton-Kent-Middlesex        PRESS RELEASE

RURAL HEALTH PANEL MEMBERS REVEALED

For July 28, 2009

Hal Fjeldsted (Chair) – Kirkland Lake
Hal Fjeldsted has been the CEO of the Kirkland and District Hospital since 2000. Prior to this, Hal was the CEO of the Red Lake Margaret Cochenour Memorial Hospital for 10 years. Hal also has extensive experience in working with the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA). In addition to being a member of the OHA Board since 2003, Hal’s current roles with the OHA include: Chair of the OHA Governance Committee, Chair of the Governance Best Practice Review Sub-Committee and a member of the OHA Strategic Planning Task Force and the Rural and Northern Access to Care Working Group. From 2005 to 2008 Hal was the Chair of OHA Region 1 representing Northern Hospitals.

Brian Bildfell - Essex-Windsor
Brian Bildfell is Chief of Essex-Windsor Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Previously, Brian spent 25 years with the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, 15 of which he spent in the Emergency Health Services Division and the last 10  in the Long-Term Care Division.

Jocelyn Blais – Hearst, Northeast Ontario
Jocelyn Blais is the project manager for Recruitment of Health Service Professionals, a committee in the Town of Hearst that includes the municipality and the local hospital. Mr. Blais also organized the last Francophone Health Summit in Timmins on behalf of the two Northern French Language Health Services Network.

Lynn Brown – Fort Erie
Lynn Brown is a Nurse Practitioner in the Town of Fort Erie and brings 31 years of nursing experience to her practice. She has educational and work experience in a broad range of fields including: mental health and psychology, long-term care, gerontology and psychogeriatrics with a specialization in dementia. Lynn was also the panelDirector of Nursing for the Region of Niagara for five years, starting in 1994. In addition to being a member of faculty at McMaster University, she also worked in the Niagara Regional Public Health department as a manager in the school program, and as a Nurse Practitioner in the Sexual Health Program.

Mike Brown - Algoma-Manitoulin
Mike Brown, MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin, is the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Transportation, a member of the Standing Committee on Government Agencies and a member of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation and Regulations. MPP Brown has served as the Speaker of the 38th Parliament, Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Natural Resources, and Chair of the Cabinet Committee on Education. Prior to entering provincial politics, Mike was the deputy mayor of Gore Bay and President of the Manitoulin Municipal Association.

Margret Comack – North Perth
Margret Comack has been the CEO at the Listowel Wingham Hospitals Alliance for 10 years, in addition to being the current Chair of the North Perth Family Health Team and Vice Chair of the North Huron Family Health Team. Ms. Comack was also a member of the Ontario Hospital Association Board for five years (2000 – 2005). She was also the Acting Executive Director of the North Perth Family Health Team from November 2008 to April 2009.

Sheri Doxtator – Oneida Nation of the Thames
Sheri Doxtator has worked alongside some well-known First Nations leaders, leaders in science and within the health research field, including the Can-Am Indian Friendship Centre, Bank of Montreal, Southern First Nations Secretariat, London Health Sciences Centre, National Aboriginal Achievement Foundation and the Association of Iroquois and Allied Indians. Ms. Doxtator is a citizen of the Iroquois Confederacy born into the Oneida Nation of the Thames and A’nó:wal (Turtle) clan. She also sits on the elected council for Oneida. Most recently, Ms. Doxtator accepted the position of the Aboriginal Health Access Centre Project Manager for the Association of Ontario Health Centres.

Kathy Faries - James Bay/Weeneebayko   
Kathy Faries has been a nurse for 25 years, and spent the past five years working as a Nurse Practitioner in Moose Factory and also for the North Shore Tribal Council in Northern Ontario. Ms. Faries obtained her BNSc in 1984 and her NP certificate in 1993 from Queen's University. She was born and raised in Moose Factory and is both a member and councillor of the Moose Cree First Nation.

       
Kelly Isfan - Campbellford
Kelly Isfan is currently the President and CEO of Campbellford Memorial Hospital. Prior to moving to Campbellford, she was the CEO at the Atikokan General Hospital, and has led other health care organizations in the long-term care and community care sectors in Ontario, British Columbia and Saskatchewan. In her current position Ms. Isfan serves on a number of provincial committees such as the Ontario Hospital Association’s Small Rural and Northern Provincial Leadership Council and the Joint Policy & Planning Committee’s Accountability Committee. She is now a board member of the Trent Hills Family Health Team.

Carol Mitchell – Huron-Bruce
Carol Mitchell, MPP for Huron-Bruce, is the Parliamentary Assistant to the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing and Chair of the Liberal Caucus. MPP Mitchell also sits on the newly formed Cabinet Committee for Poverty Reduction, the Standing Committee on General Government and is a member of the Liberal Rural Caucus.

Dr. Terry O'Driscoll – Sioux Lookout
Dr. Terry O'Driscoll came to Sioux Lookout in 1982 and practices as a full spectrum family physician and clinical preceptor for the Northern Ontario School of Medicine. Dr. O'Driscoll has provided leadership on numerous boards and committees, including chief of staff at Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, co-chair of the Ontario Maternity Care Expert Panel and past president of the Ontario College of Family Physicians.

Raymond Pong – Sudbury/Northeast Ontario
Raymond Pong is the Research Director of the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research and a Professor at the School of Rural and Northern Health and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, Laurentian University. Pong also teaches in the graduate program of the School of Nursing and is a Principal of the Ontario Training Centre in Health Services and Policy Research. He also has many years of experience in public service (in Alberta and Ontario).

Doug Reycraft - Municipality of Southwest Middlesex
Former Member of Provincial Parliament Doug Reycraft was first elected to the Ontario legislature in  1985.  He was next elected mayor of Southwest Middlesex in 2000. Reycraft has also served as Chair on the London-Middlesex Board of Health.

Gerry Rowlands - Tillsonburg
Gerry Rowlands is currently an emergency room physician at Tillsonburg District Hospital and has been practicing since 1979. Rowlands has a full rural practice, which includes house calls, emergency room coverage, in-hospital coverage, minor surgery and obstetrics. Rowlands was president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA) from 1996 to 1997 and president of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) from 2005 to 2006.

Donna Williams – Balmerton/Northwest Ontario
Donna Williams has been part of the Keewaytinook Okimakanak Telemedicine (KOTM) team since 2001. Ms. Williams works as a Telemedicine Program Manager and is a registered nurse. 

Media Contact:  Pat Hoy, MPP, 519-351-0510
                        Maria Van Bommel, MPP, 519-245-8696