Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare (MAHC) has restored a regular night shift in its medical laboratories at the Huntsville and Bracebridge hospitals. This is a victory for viable community hospitals. It is also another example of the chaos caused by the government’s artificial prohibition on hospital labs performing medical laboratory work for
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OPSEU Diablogue: Another home care strike looms as $1.1 million CEO offers workers less than inflation
This is starting to look like a pattern: another home care employer, another offer that has angered workers and led to another strike vote. This time it’s both nursing and personal support workers in Renfrew County who are employees of … Continue reading →
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Fragmentation, Private Profit and Home Phlebotomy
Every day there are stories of how the fragmentation of health care hurts patients. A few, when a patient dies, make the media. Most often fragmentation causes small inconveniences, but there are many and they affect patients in very real ways. December 19th’s story is about a patient with a
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Response to Toronto Star Pro For-Profit Clinic Opinion Piece
On December 10, Rick Janson, Campaigns Officer, Ontario Public Service Employees Union, published the following post in response to an opinion piece in the Toronto Star: Who should you trust? Former PC advisor shills in the Star for private health care Francesca Grosso says she is an established expert in health
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Will That Be Raspberries With Your Rectal?
The changing face of primary care is on special at Loblaws’. Primacy, a for-profit chain of primary care clinics, has 112 outlets in Loblaw Stores. Most Loblaws’ also have in-store pharmacies. The synergies are obvious. Primacy’s web site says, “an on-site pharmacy provides expert advice and services to our patients.” A
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Privatising Preventive Care – the For-Profit Flu Fight
Flu season is upon us, and it seems that the for-profit-health-care bug is infecting primary and preventative care. The yearly campaign to increase the number people vaccinated against the flu is coordinated by the public sector though the Ministry of Health and Public Health Units. After that it gets a
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: The Risks of For-Profit Community Care
With the sale of the Shouldice Clinic to a health care conglomerate it is useful to review some of the literature comparing for-profit hospitals to non-profit hospitals. The results show that: 1) there is a higher risk of death in for-profit hospitals, http://www.cmaj.ca/content/166/11/1399.full : 2) private for-profit hospitals result in
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Missed Opportunity: Corporate Conglomerate Buys Shouldice Center
The Ontario Government has missed an opportunity with the sale of the Shouldice Clinic to health care conglomerate, Centric Health. The government could have purchased Shouldice and integrated its services into the public health care system: after all, Shouldice was funded from the public purse. A good comparator for the
Continue readingOPSEU Diablogue: Fun with funding – for profit “envelope” gets biggest share of increase
Provincial long-term care funding is delivered to Ontario’s nursing homes bundled in what the Ministry likes to call “envelopes.” These figures are allocated for each resident under care. There is an envelope for nursing and personal care, another for program … Continue reading →
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: GlaxoSmithKline Sets Record with 3 Billion Dollar Fine
And the list goes on. It is no secret that many for-profit health companies in the United States are regularly fined for various forms of fraud, usually cheating Medicare or Medicaid, or jeopardizing patients’ health, or both. This is the second big one I have read about this week, the
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Public Pay Public Benefits
The new graphic beside this post features logos from five corporations delivering essential medical services in Canada. The represent the reality of a broad range of for-profit companies benefiting from public payment for health services:the new focus of this blog. For the last year I have written on for-profit delivery in Canada’s
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