Dealing with closure of its hospital, Bracebridge an emblem of the well being care disaster going through rural Ontario communities

OCHU-CUPE to carry media convention outdoors Bracebridge Hospital on Monday at 10:00 a.m.

Article content material

BRACEBRIDGE, Ontario — On the eve of the provincial election, a line-up of hospital stretchers outdoors Bracebridge Hospital will symbolize the disaster in Ontario’s well being care:

– 1,860 individuals on stretchers in hospital hallways, up from 826 in June 2018 when the Premier promised to finish hallway drugs.
– 2.5 million residents and not using a household physician
– Palliative house care sufferers dying with out painkillers and medical provides
– 250,000 individuals ready for surgical procedures
– Practically 50,000 individuals ready for long-term care
– Fixed ER closures in small cities

Article content material

“The disaster in well being care impacts nearly each household,” says Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). “Your complete well being care sector is staggering. There is no such thing as a finish to the staffing shortages; ER closures, waits for surgical procedures or for long-term care beds or for a household physician or for acceptable house care companies. We hope to assist make sure that this election focuses on options to this disaster.”

In 2023, Muskoka Algonquin Well being Care (MAHC) operated at 90.7% capability, effectively above the 85 per cent beneficial most mattress occupancy stage. In keeping with evaluation by OCHU-CUPE, MAHC should add 19 beds to attain protected occupancy ranges.

The newest information for MAHC exhibits that ER sufferers, on common, wait 23.7 hours, with solely 23% of them admitted throughout the goal time of eight hours.

The union warns that cutbacks are already occurring at quite a few hospitals, together with Hamilton, Guelph, and Burlington, as they buckle beneath the burden of rising affected person volumes and inadequate funding.

Mentioning that per-person hospital funding in Ontario is the bottom in Canada and that we’ve got the fewest beds and hospital employees to inhabitants, Hurley says it isn’t stunning to witness a document improve in hospital overcrowding.

About 2,000 sufferers on daily basis obtain care on stretchers in unconventional areas similar to hallways and storage closets, a rise of 125 per cent since June 2018 when Ford acquired elected on the promise to finish hallway well being care.

Hurley says hospital overcrowding compromises affected person and employees security, inflicting delays in admitting sufferers, larger threat of nosocomial infections, and heavier workloads. Furthermore, it robs sufferers of dignity as they’re handled out in hallways with out privateness.

“There have been 250,000 individuals on wait lists for surgical procedures final 12 months” Hurley says. “2,000 are on stretchers immediately, begging for a mattress. Palliative sufferers die at house with out painkillers. As a province, we should accomplish that a lot better for our residents.”

“The following authorities should implement actual options.”

The union recommends the next options to handle the well being care disaster:

– Enhance hospital capability to match the wants of an ageing and rising inhabitants, by including staffed hospital beds.
– Tackle the staffing disaster by enhancing compensation and dealing situations, and offering incentives similar to free tuition to college students in nursing and PSW applications
– Finish personal sector supply of acute, long-term care and group well being companies
– Ban company nurses to cut back staffing prices, and make investments that cash in enhancing compensation and dealing situations for in-house staff
– Enhancing staffing in LTC to fulfill the 4-hours of every day care benchmark and broaden capability to cut back waitlists
– Finish contracting out of companies throughout well being care, and run LTC and residential care on a public, not-for-profit foundation
– Broaden using nurse practitioners to guide main care clinics

Who:		Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU- CUPE)

		Sharon Richer, OCHU secretary-treasurer

What:		A line-up of hospital stretchers to warn concerning the well being care disaster

The place:		South Muskoka Memorial Hospital, 75 Ann St, Bracebridge

When:		10 a.m. on Monday, February 10