The Liberal Party in Ontario has been in power for over a decade. Most governments regardless of party get a little bit too comfy in their positions to actually govern…
The Ontario government’s new five year poverty reduction strategy promises to cut child poverty by 25 per cent, end homelessness. The post Ontario promises to cut child poverty by 25…
There’s got to be a morning after. Yesterday more than 40 communities across Canada marked the end of the 10-year health accord between the provinces and the federal government. Listening…
Reflecting on two years of “progress” under Ontario’s Health Action Plan, Health Minister Deb Matthews published her list of “accomplishments” in an on-line pamphlet posted in January. After two years…
What to do with the Community Care Access Centres? Yesterday’s Toronto Star column by Bob Hepburn suggests we should roll them into the Local Health Integration Networks and send the…
There may soon be good news for the province’s personal support workers. “When PSWs tell me they can make more at Tim Horton’s, I sit up and take notice,” Health…
To be a patient here you not only have to have a mental disorder, but to have come in conflict with the law. The Southwest Centre for Forensic Mental Health…
Today striking Red Cross Care Partners personal support workers are at the door step of three government ministers – Deb Matthews (Health), Yasir Naqvi (Labour) and Charles Sousa (Finance). In…
Something is definitely off this holiday season. Instead of being invited to the usual round of parties, we’re getting invitations to demonstrations and press conferences. Instead of decorating halls we’re…
When Health Minister Deb Matthews spoke at the closing of this year’s Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) HealthAchieve, the hall was two-thirds empty. Only two days before there was standing room…
At this year’s Ontario Hospital Association HealthAchieve the organizers hired a graphic artist to illustrate many of the sessions. After each session, participants were invited to look at the graphic…
Ontario has been remarkably resistant to the idea of staffing standards in long-term care. Staffing is a major determinant of quality in long-term care – something even the most casual…
“This is a case where the wheels are literally falling off the bus.” – Andre Marin, Toronto Star, July 16, 2013 Back in June 2011 the Ontario government promised legislation…
It is very unlikely that Deb Matthews personally wrote the letter sent to a member of the Quinte Labour Council about local hospital funding. She did sign it, which suggests…
In some ways the injunction filed by the Designated Physiotherapy Clinics Association of Ontario may have been a blessing in disguise. As of August 1st OHIP funding for these private…
When Ontario last drafted a strategic plan for the delivery of comprehensive mental health services, the Mental Health Commission of Canada didn’t even exist. Today we are still implementing mental…
For more than 30 minutes a resident of The Wexford went on a rampage, roaming the halls of the Scarborough long-term care facility, battering one woman before leaving his own…
Oh come on now. Attending question period at Queen’s Park can be an exercise in frustration as the opposition’s questions and the government’s answers seldom align. You can ask anything…
The closure of eight downtown Toronto hospice beds is hardly creating buzz in the health care community. But it should. Perram House hospice is not big enough to warrant major…
Here we go again. This week news of another shocking nursing home death – this time in The Wexford, a Scarborough long term care residence. A second resident was also…
