Saturday, January 15, 2011

St.Catharines Standard fails to mention Liberal role in continuing Ontario hospital deficits

It's amazing how in Grant Lafleche's story "Niagara Health System faces higher deficit" (St.Catharines Standard, Jan.15, 2011) there IS NO MENTION of either Liberal MPP Jim Bradley, or of Liberal MPP Kim Craitor, or of the LIBERAL government!!

NONE!!!

Now, there's a grrreat heapin' bucket-load o' Grit-butt-lickin' for ya,  from the St.Catharines Standard JimmyBoy FanClub!

Why - it's as if the funding formula for the Niagara Health System HAS NOTHING TO DO with the Liberal government, or with Dalton McGuinty's single-payer health monopolism!!

Why - it's just some kind of little deficit, which can somehow be solved (or, not... it really doesn't matter... until election time...) by cutting more services. What do any Liberals have to do with any of this, anyway... right?!

Why, we all know (don't we?!) - that it was the NHS's dastardly CEO, Debbie Sevenpifer, who asked for, and then created, the HIP plan - all by herself!!

Why, Dr. Jack Kitts showed up in St.Catharines, back in Oct.2008, to rubber-stamp health-care cuts which were solely requested by Debbie Sevenpifer, evil incarnate!

The NHS one fine day simply decided, all on its own, to underfund itself, to 'save' money!!
The NHS was not forced to make cuts by some stinkin' LHIN!

Why, Debbie Sevenpifer also personally created the LHIN's, just so she would have a cover to protect herself from patient backlash. How sly of Deb to do this, to create an agency which would be the scapegoat, while the puppetmaster - Deb - walks away without blame!

We all know (right?!) that the stinkin' LHIN was not forced by stinkin' Grits George Smitherman, McGuinty, Bradley, and Craitor to order the NHS to create a cost-cutting HIP plan!!

Nawwww... Debbie did this all on her own!! Yep: she personally closed the emergency rooms in Fort Erie and Port Colborne!

Just ask Vance Badawey about that!

Reading Lafleche's Liberal-lackey report, are we supposed to believe that McGuinty's Liberal pieces of sh!t had nothin' to do with any of this!?!!

Lafleche informs us that the NHS was "plagued by chronic underfunding" for years... but doesn't spell out which years, by how much, or why.

Was Lafleche referring to the period from 2004 to 2010? Or was Lafleche talking about some other time frame?

Why weren't any Liberals mentioned in Lafleche's story?

Were Bradley or Craitor or Deb Matthews contacted by any St.Catharines Standard reporter to comment on the NHS's continuing 2011 deficits? Did they decline to respond, or did the Standard not even bother to ask any Liberal for a comment?!

Aren't the local Liberal monopolist hacks the same ones who claim time and again that the NHS isn't underfunded, and, ummm, welllll... if it is... then it's someone else's fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!?!

Reports Lafleche:

 "...We were expecting (provincial government funding) to increase by 3% this year and 3% next year. We are getting around half of that," she said. "And keep in mind that for us, 1% is $3 million."
The NHS had projected a much smaller deficit, $2 million, for the 2011-12 fiscal year. The hospital system had pledged to balance its books by 2013, but for years was plagued by chronic under-funding. Its operating deficit had ballooned to $18 million, Zangari said. In February, the NHS received an additional $14 million in annual funding to help address the shortfall.
With that new funding, and assuming an annual increase of 3% in funding each year, the NHS said it would have its budget balanced by 2013, the same year the new hospital opens in St. Catharines.
However, Zangari said with the less-than-expected funding increases and growing overtime and sick-leave expenses, the deficit is now projected to be much larger this year.
"This is not a problem we face alone," Zangari said. "This is a problem that many hospitals in the province are trying to cope with..."


And yet, when the NHS's own CFO Angela Zangari expresses the view that there is systemic underfunding faced by many hospitals in Ontario, there is no mention of, and no response from, local Grit hacks Craitor or Bradley.
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