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Does
provincial budget
restraint, hospital
construction mean bed
cuts?
The
Ontario Health
Coalition thinks so.
“The
province’s newest
hospitals are focused
on providing the
latest in
technological advances
when they should also
be considering added
bed capacity for
future population
needs, OHC
spokesperson Natalie
Mehra has said.
Deb
Mathews, Health
Minister, cites
the need for modern
infection control
standards, new
surgical techniques
and expanded plans for
Alternate Level of
Care patients in
nursing or at home to
bolster her argument
that added bed
capacity isn't the
answer. “It’s
not about more beds.
In many cases that’s
not what the need is,
it’s for modern
up-to-date emergency
departments, operating
rooms” Mathews says.
Metha
has a different view.
“We’re worried
that they’ll
continue the closure
of the chronic care
beds, the continuing
care beds, the beds
for seniors ... that they’ll
continue pushing them
out of hospital and
turn a blind eye to
the coercive tactics
that hospitals are
using to push them
out.” “The people
who will be the most
affected will be
seniors and people
with chronic illnesses
who require
longer-term stays in
hospitals.”
“We’re worried
that the other
rationing will be
closures of emergency
departments and acute
care beds in small and
rural hospitals. There
are a number that have
been put on the
chopping block.” All
the acute care beds
and the emergency
departments in Port
Colborne and Fort Erie
hospitals, for
example, have been
closed. Metha
expressed fear that
closure and shutdowns
will return in the
post election
budget-squeezing time.
The
Ontario government is
planning to hold
health care spending
overall to a 3% annual
increase — well
below traditional
inflation rates in the
sector.
“All
kinds of money going
into infrastructure
that may actually
downsize the health
system into the
future,” Metha
contends.
see: Ontario
Health Coalition
Toronto
Sun
2011/12/09
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