Looks like Dalton McGuinty’s Liberal health monopoly is in trouble again, this time at the QHC (Quinte Health Care) in Eastern Ontario, where health minister David Caplan is appointing a supervisor to take over the hospital system.
Bancroft This Week, Apr.8, 2009, wrote in “Province will appoint a supervisor for QHC; Ministry says QHC failed to implement a plan to address its financial situation”:
“The provincial government is taking a stand on the financial future of the Quinte Health Care Corporation. David Caplan, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care informed QHC on Mar. 31 that it is his intent to recommend a supervisor be placed with the organization.
The local health-care provider recently presented their government-funding outlet, the South East Local Health Integration Network (SELHIN), with their proposal to eliminate the imminent years of deficit that QHC is currently facing. After months of internal review and a series of public meetings, the organization provided a plan that still left the corporation with a $4 million deficit.
As a result, the Ministry states that QHC has failed to implement a plan that will address the current financial situation facing the organization with no extra funding available from the provincial government forcing them to appoint a supervisor to oversee the financial recovery plan.
“It had to be done,” says Chairperson for the SELHIN Georgina Thompson. She says that QHC was given a clear mandate to eliminate the deficit and still provided a plan that does not meet that final goal.
“They were given a task to eliminate the deficit while keeping the accessibility and the highest quality of health care in tact, and they did not do that,” says Thompson. “This is a necessary step to make the organization financially sound for the communities involved.”
In a statement provided by his office, the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care David Caplan says that the recommendation being put forward for government-mandated review for the benefit of the public.
“The McGuinty government is committed to ensuring that residents of Belleville and the surrounding area are well served by the Quinte Health Care Corporation,” said Caplan in the release. “As the financial situation is also worsening with the potential to jeopardize hospital operations, I believe that it is necessary to take action at this time.”
President and CEO of QHC Bruce Laughton says that after the months of review that they conducted in order to save money that it was difficult to provide the service they wanted to provide without going into deficit.
“We wanted to be balanced, why would we want to lose money,” says Laughton. “We are looking forward to seeing what help the supervisor will provide to balance the budget.”
“Nobody here wants to be in the red and we will wait and see what happens.”
The Ministry is concerned with the organization’s inability to move forward on a number of recommendations that were made in 2006 from an assessment on governance and other matters including the operation of the Board of Directors. The ministry also suggests that the 2008 report provided by the CEO of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Ken Tremblay has not been implemented in the latest recovery plan.
Thompson says that the supervisor that will be appointed by the Ministry will review leadership and governance concerns that were raised in the numerous studies that were done on QHC, as well as look at the organization in great detail to see where they can bring the budget out of the red.
“We have a health-care corporation that is currently not sustainable at the rate that they are going,” says Thompson. “If we want health-care to be sustainable for all the communities that are served under this corporation, then we are going to have to look at any direction to provide the highest standard of health care according to the finances that are made available to them.”
As for the security of QHC jobs and services during this upcoming government review of the corporation, Laughton says that he does not expect drastic cutbacks to occur within this assessment. But, when it comes to specific items within the governance and representation positions in the corporation, including his own job, all is in the air.
“Who knows what the supervisor will say,” he says. “It will all depend on the direction they will take when they are appointed.”
After the notice was given to QHC regarding the government supervisor, the Ministry has to wait a total of 14 days for a review of the recommendation. If the Lieutenant Governor in Council, or Cabinet, deems the Ministry’s actions in the benefit of the greater public, a supervisor will then be appointed to review the financial stability of QHC.”
*
We can only hope an Ombudsman’s investigation into the running of the QHC is soon to follow…or is that too much to hope for??
Already the Ombudsman is looking, albeit under a limited mandate, into the restructuring that recently occurred in the Niagara Health System, with its HIP cuts. But a hospital system under an appointed supervisor can and should be now thoroughly examined by the Ombudsman – to see what impact the Liberal’s own health policies, and specifically the actions of Caplan and George Smitherman before him, have had leading up to the situation at the QHC today.
The accusation by the local LHIN chair, Georgina Thompson, was that the QHC was “given a task to eliminate the deficit while keeping the accessibility and the highest quality of health care in tact, and they did not do that.”
Shades of Niagara!! This is the same pattern of garbage being spewed everywhere in the province – the McGuinty Liberals forced budget cutbacks in their own monopoly system, then had their appointed LHIN puppets in turn force their local systems to ‘eliminate their deficits’ - oh, yeah, while being expected to maintain ‘the highest quality care’, to boot!! (see: McGuinty Liberal hypocrites again cut health-care: MPP Jim Bradley vanishes into a Cone Of Silence )
The NHS here in Niagara said numerous times over the years that it didn’t have enough funding, which is why it’s in deficit now as well; the QHC’s situation seems little different. NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer said that provincial funding will increase by 2.1% this year, yet, costs for drugs, utilities and supplies are growing at 3.5% - which will lead to a $4 million deficit (similar to the QHC's) next year in the NHS. (Niagara This Week, Feb.4, 2009) Maybe, then, Niagara 's system will get taken over by the province soon as well? I mean, how long can McGuinty go underfunding his monopoly, then expecting it to perform miracles?
Note what the LHIN's Thompson said: “We have a health-care corporation that is currently not sustainable at the rate that they are going,” says Thompson. “If we want health-care to be sustainable for all the communities that are served under this corporation, then we are going to have to look at any direction to provide the highest standard of health care according to the finances that are made available to them.” "Sustainable"?? Sustainable under what conditions - those of a flicking Liberal monopoly?! "Finances that are made available"?? Don't you mean 'finances that are purposefully NOT made available' by the monopolist Liberals?!
Ontario is trapped in a SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH-CARE MONOPOLY - there is NO other choice for this funding, other than FROM THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT WHICH JUST CUT THE FUNDING!!
The common thread is that these 'deficits' are completely artificial, in other words, they were created by McGuinty’s own Liberal government, through systemic cuts to their own health monopoly. The McGuintyite single-payer health-care ideologues - the ones who propagate the glories of monopoly health-care - simply cut their funding, expected their hospitals to cut spending, and expected no consequent impact on service!
Yet, the same Liberal ideologues who are demanding that the hospitals cut back and balance their budgets, can’t do the same themselves when it comes to the McGuinty government being billions in deficit this year alone!
The bizarre, immoral and perhaps unconstitutional aspect of all this is that McGuinty’s Liberal health-monopoly-pushing ideologues are performing all these manoeuvres while still denying Ontario’s patients the right to by-pass the state-run system, and purchase their health care privately.
QHC’s CEO Bruce Laughton said: “We wanted to be balanced, why would we want to lose money? …Nobody here wants to be in the red and we will wait and see what happens.”
This is eerily similar to what the NHS also has been saying. (see: Liberals force state-run health-monopoly cuts throughout Ontario) And we know that in Niagara, even though the Oct. 2008 NHS HIP proposal, reviewed by Jack Kitts, was approved, it wasn’t going to save any money! ...(and wasn’t that the point of it?!)
How long will McGuinty continue to prolong his unsustainable Liberal Healthcare Duplicity?
*
Bancroft This Week, Apr.8, 2009, wrote in “Province will appoint a supervisor for QHC; Ministry says QHC failed to implement a plan to address its financial situation”:
“The provincial government is taking a stand on the financial future of the Quinte Health Care Corporation. David Caplan, Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care informed QHC on Mar. 31 that it is his intent to recommend a supervisor be placed with the organization.
The local health-care provider recently presented their government-funding outlet, the South East Local Health Integration Network (SELHIN), with their proposal to eliminate the imminent years of deficit that QHC is currently facing. After months of internal review and a series of public meetings, the organization provided a plan that still left the corporation with a $4 million deficit.
As a result, the Ministry states that QHC has failed to implement a plan that will address the current financial situation facing the organization with no extra funding available from the provincial government forcing them to appoint a supervisor to oversee the financial recovery plan.
“It had to be done,” says Chairperson for the SELHIN Georgina Thompson. She says that QHC was given a clear mandate to eliminate the deficit and still provided a plan that does not meet that final goal.
“They were given a task to eliminate the deficit while keeping the accessibility and the highest quality of health care in tact, and they did not do that,” says Thompson. “This is a necessary step to make the organization financially sound for the communities involved.”
In a statement provided by his office, the Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care David Caplan says that the recommendation being put forward for government-mandated review for the benefit of the public.
“The McGuinty government is committed to ensuring that residents of Belleville and the surrounding area are well served by the Quinte Health Care Corporation,” said Caplan in the release. “As the financial situation is also worsening with the potential to jeopardize hospital operations, I believe that it is necessary to take action at this time.”
President and CEO of QHC Bruce Laughton says that after the months of review that they conducted in order to save money that it was difficult to provide the service they wanted to provide without going into deficit.
“We wanted to be balanced, why would we want to lose money,” says Laughton. “We are looking forward to seeing what help the supervisor will provide to balance the budget.”
“Nobody here wants to be in the red and we will wait and see what happens.”
The Ministry is concerned with the organization’s inability to move forward on a number of recommendations that were made in 2006 from an assessment on governance and other matters including the operation of the Board of Directors. The ministry also suggests that the 2008 report provided by the CEO of the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Ken Tremblay has not been implemented in the latest recovery plan.
Thompson says that the supervisor that will be appointed by the Ministry will review leadership and governance concerns that were raised in the numerous studies that were done on QHC, as well as look at the organization in great detail to see where they can bring the budget out of the red.
“We have a health-care corporation that is currently not sustainable at the rate that they are going,” says Thompson. “If we want health-care to be sustainable for all the communities that are served under this corporation, then we are going to have to look at any direction to provide the highest standard of health care according to the finances that are made available to them.”
As for the security of QHC jobs and services during this upcoming government review of the corporation, Laughton says that he does not expect drastic cutbacks to occur within this assessment. But, when it comes to specific items within the governance and representation positions in the corporation, including his own job, all is in the air.
“Who knows what the supervisor will say,” he says. “It will all depend on the direction they will take when they are appointed.”
After the notice was given to QHC regarding the government supervisor, the Ministry has to wait a total of 14 days for a review of the recommendation. If the Lieutenant Governor in Council, or Cabinet, deems the Ministry’s actions in the benefit of the greater public, a supervisor will then be appointed to review the financial stability of QHC.”
*
We can only hope an Ombudsman’s investigation into the running of the QHC is soon to follow…or is that too much to hope for??
Already the Ombudsman is looking, albeit under a limited mandate, into the restructuring that recently occurred in the Niagara Health System, with its HIP cuts. But a hospital system under an appointed supervisor can and should be now thoroughly examined by the Ombudsman – to see what impact the Liberal’s own health policies, and specifically the actions of Caplan and George Smitherman before him, have had leading up to the situation at the QHC today.
The accusation by the local LHIN chair, Georgina Thompson, was that the QHC was “given a task to eliminate the deficit while keeping the accessibility and the highest quality of health care in tact, and they did not do that.”
Shades of Niagara!! This is the same pattern of garbage being spewed everywhere in the province – the McGuinty Liberals forced budget cutbacks in their own monopoly system, then had their appointed LHIN puppets in turn force their local systems to ‘eliminate their deficits’ - oh, yeah, while being expected to maintain ‘the highest quality care’, to boot!! (see: McGuinty Liberal hypocrites again cut health-care: MPP Jim Bradley vanishes into a Cone Of Silence )
The NHS here in Niagara said numerous times over the years that it didn’t have enough funding, which is why it’s in deficit now as well; the QHC’s situation seems little different. NHS CEO Debbie Sevenpifer said that provincial funding will increase by 2.1% this year, yet, costs for drugs, utilities and supplies are growing at 3.5% - which will lead to a $4 million deficit (similar to the QHC's) next year in the NHS. (Niagara This Week, Feb.4, 2009) Maybe, then, Niagara 's system will get taken over by the province soon as well? I mean, how long can McGuinty go underfunding his monopoly, then expecting it to perform miracles?
Note what the LHIN's Thompson said: “We have a health-care corporation that is currently not sustainable at the rate that they are going,” says Thompson. “If we want health-care to be sustainable for all the communities that are served under this corporation, then we are going to have to look at any direction to provide the highest standard of health care according to the finances that are made available to them.” "Sustainable"?? Sustainable under what conditions - those of a flicking Liberal monopoly?! "Finances that are made available"?? Don't you mean 'finances that are purposefully NOT made available' by the monopolist Liberals?!
Ontario is trapped in a SINGLE-PAYER HEALTH-CARE MONOPOLY - there is NO other choice for this funding, other than FROM THE LIBERAL GOVERNMENT WHICH JUST CUT THE FUNDING!!
The common thread is that these 'deficits' are completely artificial, in other words, they were created by McGuinty’s own Liberal government, through systemic cuts to their own health monopoly. The McGuintyite single-payer health-care ideologues - the ones who propagate the glories of monopoly health-care - simply cut their funding, expected their hospitals to cut spending, and expected no consequent impact on service!
Yet, the same Liberal ideologues who are demanding that the hospitals cut back and balance their budgets, can’t do the same themselves when it comes to the McGuinty government being billions in deficit this year alone!
The bizarre, immoral and perhaps unconstitutional aspect of all this is that McGuinty’s Liberal health-monopoly-pushing ideologues are performing all these manoeuvres while still denying Ontario’s patients the right to by-pass the state-run system, and purchase their health care privately.
QHC’s CEO Bruce Laughton said: “We wanted to be balanced, why would we want to lose money? …Nobody here wants to be in the red and we will wait and see what happens.”
This is eerily similar to what the NHS also has been saying. (see: Liberals force state-run health-monopoly cuts throughout Ontario) And we know that in Niagara, even though the Oct. 2008 NHS HIP proposal, reviewed by Jack Kitts, was approved, it wasn’t going to save any money! ...(and wasn’t that the point of it?!)
How long will McGuinty continue to prolong his unsustainable Liberal Healthcare Duplicity?
*
No comments:
Post a Comment