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
Continue readingTag: integration
OPSEU Diablogue: Should the LHINs really be the e-Harmony of health care providers?
When the province decided to call its most recent crown agencies Local Health Integration Networks, it was clear where the emphasis lay. Rather than plan a system based on need, it appears the primary function of the LHIN was to … Continue reading →
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Private Hospitals in Specialty Clinic Clothing
The provincial government’s mid-summer announcement that regulations under the Independent Health Facilities (IHF) Act will be drafted to permit “specialty clinics” raises some serious concerns. Changes in the LHINS enabling legislation will also be required. While the details are sparse the government’s stated goal is to permit the LHINs, Ontario’s
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: The Impacts of the Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker In Canada
She Fixes So Many Problems By: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: The Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker (NISW) is one of the programs established by the Province of Manitoba to help newcomers adjust to life in Canada. The program is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism,
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: Health Facility License Auction Health Cost Driver
It seems so obvious in hindsight: if you want to know what is going on in business-side of community medicine look where doctors look – the classified section of The Medical Post. After reading all of the articles, during a slow day at work, a big flashy classified ad for
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 readingThe Scott Ross: Europe’s Export of Political Integration
From democracy to banking, Europe has launched institutions that have shaped the world; with its recent financial crisis, Europe might be about to do it again. The European financial crisis is only giving further legitimacy and urgency to greater European political integration. It is argued that with many economies dependent
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Independent Health Facilities and For-Profit Delivery: Reassuring Words, Troubling Results
Who said these words and when? We have three broad objectives: to develop a more community-based health care system to ensure that patients receive quality medical care as close to home as possible; that the procedures are carried out in a safe, effective manner; and to regulate facilities so that
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Health Integration: Not in Ontario
I am sure there is a plan to improve health care. There must be: Ontario’s recent budget says it wants to improve integration, control costs and increase access. Yet Ontario’s provincial budget just does not do it. The section heading says “Providing the right care, at the right time, in
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: Update on Thessalon and St. Joseph Island
The facts as we now know them: Despite what the hospital web site says there are no lab facilities at the Mathews Memorial Hospital or the Thessalon Hospital. Neither has a laboratory license. Blood is taken at these facilities by hospital staff and sent to the main lab at the
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: The Silo Strategy –Part 1
How did the for-profit labs become the sole providers of laboratory services for all non-hospital patients in Ontario? These patients, often called community patients, usually need a lab test that is ordered by their family doctor or a nurse practitioner. In Ontario multinational corporations have achieved a feat unparalleled in
Continue readingFalse positive: private profit in Canada's health care: LHINs Undercut Integration
Even though I have not met the CEO of the Sault Hospital in northern Ontario I expect he is an honorable person with a difficult task: to justify the unjustifiable. It is on his orders that the Thessalon Hospital and Mathew’s Memorial Hospital, small rural hospitals, closed their doors to the
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