By 2027 the PC health care funding plan falls $21.3 billion short, their hospital bed plan falls 500 beds short, their plan to free up hospital capacity by moving hospital patents to long-term care is unlikely to work, and their nurse and PSW staffing plan will fall 33,000 short according
Continue readingTag: LTC
Defend Public Healthcare: Hospital, long-term care funding cut by the Ford Conservative government
The Financial Accountability Office has released the Ford PC government’s funding plans for the various health care sub-sectors. The news is not good. The funding plans for 2022/3 in several key line items are down compared to actual funding in 2021/2: Funding plans for long-term care services are down $26
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Violence is widespread and growing in Ontario health care
Contrary to popular perception, there are more assaults in hospitals than in any other industry. Long-term are facilities are also major site for assaults. Health care as a whole has by far the most assaults that result in lost time injuries – far, far more than any other sector. Assaults in hospitals
Continue readingThings Are Good: People Live Longer in Non-Profits
The COVID pandemic has revealed problems in our society which we will need to fix. Thankfully researchers are identifying what problems are fixable by looking for the cause. Long term care homes (LTCs) are one such area of our society that we can improve, and do so very easily too.
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: The Ontario Budget: Hard Times Ahead
Health Care: To ease future cuts, the government established a budgeting system this year which would see much of the COVID-related funding budgeted under special funds distinct from the normal ministries. So much of the increased funding for the Ministry of Health or Ministry of Long-Term Care is not reflected
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Ford government promise falls far short of solving hospital hallway medicine problem
Tens of thousands of new Long-Term Care (LTC) beds needed just to offset aging The new Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has promised 30,000 new long-term care beds over the next ten years, often connecting this to their promise to end hospital hallway medicine. But how does this promise stack
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Ontario long-term care staffing falls far short of other provinces
CUPE is campaigning for a legislated minimum average of four worked hours of nursing and personal care per resident per day in long-term care (LTC) facilities. New research indicates that not only is LTC underfunded in Ontario, it is also understaffed compared to the other provinces. LTC staffing falls short:
Continue readingcartoon life: How about a transit-run AI self-driving smart car system for #ldnont?
Hmmm, maybe a crazy idea. My retro future fantasy brain on a spree. The city transit service could run a small fleet of AI Smart, small self-driving cars. Electric. We know they’re coming. A kind of car share system managed by a transit authority. You could hire one over the phone or through an app […]
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Why long-term care needs to improve
CUPE and OCHU are campaigning for a legislated minimum average of four worked hours of nursing and personal care per resident per day in long-term care (LTC) facilities. Key points: [1] The relevant population is increasing rapidly; [2] New beds are not being created at the same pace; [3] Resident
Continue readingDefend Public Healthcare: Ontario elder care: fewer staff, more privatization, more private payment
A new report sponsored by the Canadian Institute for Health Information and completed by Statistics Canada indicates that staffing at Ontario long-term care facilities (LTC) falls short of other provinces. The Long-Term Care Facilities Survey indicates that Ontario has 0.598 health care full time equivalent staff (FTE) per LTC bed. Canada
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: For-profit LTC beds attract fewer applicants than not-for-profit beds
Government data suggests for-profit long-term care beds are less desired by the public than not-for-profit beds. There are long wait lists for a beds in long-term care (LTC) facilities. (This is driven by the government’s decision to add only a few new LTC beds despite the rapid growth in
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Why are fewer hospital patients waiting for LTC?
Ontario hospitals report a significant decline in the number of patients in hospital beds who are waiting for a long term care bed. From November 2009 to March 2013, the number of patients waiting for LTC was reduced by 1,282 patients, an astonishing decline of 41%. This sounds like a
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Ontario homes:1 hour less care per elder per day
The death of a resident at a Toronto long-term care facility, allegedly at the hands of another resident, has raised concerns about inadequate staffing levels in Ontario. Recent Statistics Canada data indicates that Ontario “homes for the aged” fall well short of staffing for homes for the aged in other
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Seniors recommendations head off in wrong direction
The government’s new senior’s “action plan” discussed in the last post follows on from Dr. Samir K. Sinha’s report for the government “Living Longer Living Well”. Sinha’s report is labelled only as “Highlights and Key Recommendations”. A “full report will present considerably more detailed findings and recommendations that will
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: A tiny response to growing elder needs
The Ontario government’s 26 page Action Plan for Seniors came out yesterday. There’s not much to it. About half of the report simply rehashes what is already in place. To the good, they at least formally recognize that the elderly population is expanding rapidly and that this is going to require
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: The future for long-term care looks grim: Mass privatization
As with hospital beds, the government and other proponents of the near freeze in new long-term care beds suggest that home care can take up the slack. Does this stand up? Well, let’s take even a very aggressive version of this theory. Say that 25% of all people in LTC
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Long-term care beds falling well short of need
The Auditor General reports that the stock of long-term care beds in Ontario has grown only 3% since 2004-5. Over seven years (until 2011-12) that means an annual average growth rate of 0.42% (or about 319 beds per year). Photo: Derek Tyson That falls well short of population growth. But much
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Private insurance: no solution for long-term care
As part of its turn from care in facilities, the Ontario government has let the wait lists long-term care facilities explode. This problem has been around for several years now, and there is little sign the government intends to remedy the problem. Instead they simply talk about keeping people
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Insurance giants look for long-term care business
Giant insurance corporations are pushing into long-term care. As part of its austerity song book, the Ontario government has pretended that there is no need to expand long-term care, complex continuing care, rehabilitative care, and other forms of care. If anything needs aren’t met, it can all be solved , this
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Long-term care: expansion or contraction?
A 2011 Conference Board of Canada report done for the for-profit long-term care (LTC) facilities in Ontario estimates (based on population projections and utilization by age) that 238,000 Ontarians will be in need of long-term care by 2035. This compares with about 98,000 today. So we are looking at a need to increase long-term care 143%.
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