India is the worst but it’s not alone. All of the emerging economic superpowers share the same problem – the abuse of antibiotics. For India, it’s the result of a population coming into new wealth that still has just one doctor for every 1,700 people. You get sick, you get
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OPSEU Diablogue: The OHA makes it okay to talk about overcrowding
The Ontario Hospital Association may have made it okay to talk about hospital overcrowding. As we noted January 27, the OHA has been asking the province to look at capacity planning, noting that only Mexico and Chile have fewer hospital … Continue reading →
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: MRSA and C. Difficile rates fall (but not here)
A new report from the Chief Medical Officer of Health in England reports that “rates of C. difficile have fallen consistently in all English regions in recent years. MRSA has fallen markedly and is now very low in many areas.” As noted in November, there is no evidence of that in Ontario, as
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Whatever foresight is, it’s not 20/20…
(originally written Jan 3, 2012. Part of my Great Upload of 2013.) Come December’s end, the nervy among us like to review what they got right in the past year. The nervier like to predict what’ll happen in the New Year. Ever the blithe contrarian, I figured I’d visit the
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: No progress on hospital superbugs
There has been no progress stopping the spread of superbugs in Ontario hospitals according to government data.
Reported C. difficile rates are about the same as they have been, starting this past year at 0.35 cases per thousand patient days…
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: $9 M hospital settlement for law-suit alleging poor cleaning
Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital has agreed to settle a law-suit by approximately two-hundred victims of a C. difficile outbreak at the hospital for $9,000,000, the Hamilton Spectator reports. That is an average of about $45,000 per claimant. The law-suit alleged the Burlington hospital was not properly cleaned, maintained and disinfected. OCHU has
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: 5 Ontario hospitals abandon fight against superbug
Some Ontario hospitals are giving up on trying to control the superbug VRE. No doubt the hospitals a re responding to government funding squeeze on hospitals. Below, infection control experts offer a tart warning of the consequences of this policy. We’ve been down similar road before: past cuts to hospital
Continue readingDefending Public Healthcare: Deaths associated with C. difficile sharply underestimated
A new report indicates that C. difficile is linked in hospital records to more than 30,000 deaths a year in the United States. That’s about twice as many as federal US estimates and rivals the 32,000 killed in traffic accidents in the US. USA Today reports that in March, the
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