Mike Adler wrote in “Centenary cuts to be made over three years”, (Scarborough Mirror, Mar.25, 2008):
“Directors of Rouge Valley Health System say the hospital must swallow some unpleasant medicine to balance its budget and run itself more efficiently.
The 3,000 staff at Centenary Health Centre in Scarborough and the Ajax and Pickering Health Centre will be told at meetings Wednesday the hospital must cut 220 positions, including 13 managers, over the next three years.
Centenary will lose some of its 295 adult beds - 36 between surgery, cardiology and complex continuing care alone - but will gain a medical psychiatry unit by next year, giving the Nielson Road campus a new total of 274 beds.
Cuts were a foregone conclusion after the debt-ridden hospital accepted a report in December by a peer review team critical of Rouge Valley's inefficiency and years of deficit spending.
The hospital must start getting rid of its $40-million operating debt and $38-million capital debt, so a recovery plan eliminating some positions and beds is necessary for future growth, President and CEO Rik Ganderton said this week.
"We're at the point where we're out of options."
In a candid session with reporters on Monday, Ganderton and board chairperson Tom Atkins said the plan calls for the hospital to balance its budget by the final quarter of the fiscal year and to run a surplus thereafter.
"We've paved the road to financial hell with good intentions," Ganderton said. "Maybe we should have acted sooner but we've grown up a ton in the last two years."
Voluntary exit or early retirement packages should reduce the number of involuntary layoffs to "very few," he said, while the opening of Centenary's new birthing centre later this year and an Ajax-Pickering expansion scheduled for 2010 will likely provide chances for re-employment.
Changes at Rouge Valley began 18 months ago, he said, when Ganderton was made interim CEO (he was permanently in the position by last fall).
Senior hospital managers were replaced with "pretty well a new team" and the hospital stopped using agencies to hire nurses at a premium, rebuilding its pool of part-time and casual nursing staff, Ganderton said.
Now, while serving the same number of patients, Rouge Valley will reduce staff-to-patient ratios as well as the length of stay for some patients. "Keeping people in hospital longer isn't necessarily a good thing," Ganderton said.
The hospital is facing the fact it is a "poor performer" on efficiency and the province rewards efficient hospitals while doling out less cash to the less-efficient ones, Atkins said.
A board member for four and a half years, Atkins added there's some truth to criticism the board had avoided tough decisions. Members were typically told the hospital was slipping behind in its budgeting but that "we would catch up. It never happened and then you push reset," he said.
The capital funding deficit has become a handicap of its own, leaving no money free for new equipment. Centenary's boilers are 40 years old, 15 years beyond their expected lifespan and only one of four is currently working, Atkins said.
The board also sent members for training with the Ontario Hospital Association and has hired an internal auditor who is soon to deliver a separate report, Atkins said, adding a new whistleblower program will be in place at Rouge Valley in 30 to 60 days.
The 20 mental health beds in Ajax will consolidated at Centenary in a 15-bed psychiatric unit, a recommendation Ganderton said was made before the recovery plan. (There will still be two beds at each site for emergency observation).
In a statement, Psychiatry Chief Dr. Steve Fishman acknowledged "some inconvenience for families who have to travel to visit in-patients, but since fewer and fewer mental health patients tend to be hospitalized this impact should be minimal."
The hospital board approved the plan at Ajax in a Tuesday morning meeting Atkins described as uneventful. The Central East Local Health Integration Network will review the measures on Friday.”
*
So, let’s check out our evasive Liberal Health Minister George Smitherman’s slithery response to the concerns raised in Mark Adler’s above story, during this exchange (from Hansard) in the Legislature on Apr.8, 2008, with Health Critic Elizabeth Witmer. (Note how Smitherman pretends that jobs cut are ‘positions’, and somehow are “not necessarily real people”! That’s classic Liberalese!! Newspeak is alive and well in Dalton McGuinty's Liberal government!):
“Mrs. Elizabeth Witmer: My question is for the Premier. Despite your rhetoric, about two thirds of the people surveyed in a year-end poll indicated they'd seen no improvement in health care. Now we learn in the Toronto Star today that 72 registered nurses are going to be fired from the Rouge Valley Health System because they can't balance their budget. This is not an isolated incident. Other hospitals are also going to be laying off staff and cutting services and beds. Premier, how can you justify the firing of these nurses?
Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Health.
Hon. George Smitherman: While the question remains unanswered from the earlier answers provided by our Premier, which is, where is that party's specific plan in terms of how they intend to cut $3 billion in health care-
Interjections.
Hon. George Smitherman: Obviously, asking them to come forward with a list of the $3-billion cut to health care in detail would be helpful.
In the very specific case of the Rouge Valley Health System, I can confirm that this is a hospital that has been operating beyond its level of budget. The implication, according to Rik Ganderton, the CEO, is that there may be some disruption in employment. The key thing to make note of is that it is not necessarily real people who will leave the organization. The 72-number figure-
Interjections.
Hon. George Smitherman: I know this is hard for the honourable members but-
Interjections.
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Would the member for Renfrew please take his proper seat? Thank you. Member for Kitchener-Waterloo.
1440
Mrs. Elizabeth Witmer: Premier, you now have the longest serving health minister in the province of Ontario. Regrettably, under his watch, we now have 66% plus of the people in the province indicating in the Nanos poll that they had seen no improvement in health care. We now have a situation where this government has refused to keep their promise to hire 8,000 new nurses in their first term. In fact, you fired 757 in January 2005.
Yesterday, Premier, you said you were not going to fire nurses. Today we learn that you are. How can you justify firing nurses for a second time?
Hon. George Smitherman: The honourable member stands in her place and is not prepared to acknowledge her record and her reputation. When they were in office, nurses were referred to as hula hoops and thousands of nurses were fired. Our record, to the contrary, as evidenced by all the data from the College of Nurses of Ontario, is that there are thousands more nurses employed in Ontario today.
On the issue of support, look to the agreement ratified recently between the Ontario Nurses' Association and the Ontario Hospital Association: the highest percentage ratification for a contract in the history of negotiations between those two parties. In the member's very own community, as a result of our intervention at the Grand River Hospital, 20 additional doctors are on site and wait times have been reduced in emergency rooms-
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you.
Interjection.
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Respect the Chair, please. Final supplementary.
Mrs. Elizabeth Witmer: Well, Mr. Speaker, I am proud of our record. We hired 12,000 additional nurses.
Interjections.
Mrs. Elizabeth Witmer: We hired 12,000 more nurses. We introduced family health teams.
We have a minister today who has cut hospital beds. We have fewer beds today than we did when our government was in office. We have a minister-the facts are right here, Mr. Smitherman-who said on March 31 that Ontarians don't want to lay off nurses. Today he said to the media that it "may be a necessary evil" to balance hospital budgets.
I say to you, Mr. Smitherman, how can you justify the firing of nurses?
Hon. George Smitherman: In the particular instance of one hospital in Ontario, the Rouge Valley Health System, they have been operating beyond the level of their approved budget. Accordingly, consistent with the notion that we are all accountable and responsible to work within an approved volume, they are taking the action necessary to align their budget, as all hospitals in the province are expected to.
On the issue of nursing, we are very proud to be the government that is further evolving the role of nurses, that we have a nurse-practitioner-led clinic in Sudbury and that over the course of the next several years, we will be bringing this extraordinary innovation where nurse practitioners can work together and enhance access to family health care right at the community level. Nurses are appreciated, for once, in the province-
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. New question.
Mr. Howard Hampton: A question to the Premier: Does the Premier agree with his health minister that laying off 72 nurses at Rouge Valley Health System is necessary?
Hon. Dalton McGuinty: I think we just heard, and will hear shortly again, from the Minister of Health on this score. I think that any objective assessment would help Ontarians come to the conclusion that we have hired thousands more nurses. We're proud of the fact that they're available and working in a number of different environments.
We're hiring thousands more and, as the Minister of Health just said, we're going to take this a step further. There's going to be a new evolution in the role nurses play in Ontario. We're going to have-what do we call them?-n urse-practitioner-led clinics. That's something that has been sought for a long time on the part of nurses. We think it's time to take that step forward. We have one already in Sault Ste. Marie. We look forward to putting a few dozen more around the province.
Mr. Howard Hampton: Premier, the College of Nurses of Ontario says that you failed to keep the promise that you made in 2003 to hire 8,000 new nurses. You fell more than 2,000 nurses short on that. The heart of the matter is this: Nurses are the very people in the health care system who make our hospitals work. If people are going to get quality care, we have to have nurses providing that care. Premier, why are you, who promised to hire more nurses, now in effect cutting patient care by firing nurses?
Hon. Dalton McGuinty: To the Minister of Health.
Hon. George Smitherman: It's important to note again that the 72 is a reference to positions, and this does not result in a named individual leaving a hospital corporation. This is the quote from Rik Ganderton.
I think it's important to restate the facts here: Rouge Valley Health System has seen an increase of nearly $30 million in their base budget since our government came to office. This is a substantial investment. Every hospital in Ontario has received more money, each and every year. The honourable member can make no such claims for when he was in government, nor can this party opposite. We have a hospital, Rouge Valley, that has spent beyond their approved budget. They're taking the steps necessary, which is fair not only to the local citizens but to all the citizens across the province of Ontario.
Some 17.55 million additional hours of nursing care is what's in our party's platform as we seek to further enhance the number of nurses working in Ontario, something that neither of these parties did when they were the government.
Mr. Howard Hampton: The Premier and the minister can repeat the promises all they wish. The fact of the matter is, 8,000 new nurses were not hired. The fact of the matter is, in an area where the population is growing, where patient load is growing, where health care needs are growing, the McGuinty government is now laying off nurses.
But it's not just there. A community-based bachelor of nursing program run out of Lakehead University in northwestern Ontario is also shutting down. Twenty-five annual graduates who are supposed to serve underserviced communities have been told that their program is not going to operate.
I ask the Premier again, why are the McGuinty Liberals laying off nurses in the greater Toronto area and shutting down nursing programs in northwestern Ontario when you promised to hire more nurses, because, to quote the Premier, they're the heart of the hospital and health care system?
Hon. George Smitherman: On the issue of Lakehead, it's astonishing that a member from northwestern Ontario would be so ill-informed as to offer that information. He knows it was the absence of a post-secondary institution to support that program which has allowed it to continue. There has not been any alteration whatsoever in the resources available from our government, and the honourable member knows that very well.
He knows another thing very well. He knows that nurses are the heart and soul of health care, and he knows, through a variety of initiatives, that we've done more to enhance their standing and position than any government in a good, long time.
Some 17.55 million annual hours of care are what we will add to the extraordinary progress that we've made to date, including the implementation of the new graduate guarantee that saw 86% of program participants transitioned to full-time employment.
When they were in office, we trained nurses and then we squandered them; our government's putting them to use. And nurses in Ontario ratified, to the highest degree in their history, the recent contract between the Ontario Nurses' Association and the Ontario Hospital Association. How about-
The Speaker (Hon. Steve Peters): Thank you. New question.”
*
Unflicking believable, these Liberals. Hey, Smitty: Adler wrote that Rik Ganderton also said this week: "We're at the point where we're out of options."
Why didn’t George “free-for-all” Smitherman use that little quote from the hospital chief? And who is imposing these no-option deadlines – in a monopoly setting which also denies patients any other legal alternatives to obtain alternate health-care in Ontario, other than what George and his gang magnanimously deem fit to give?
It is ominous how this demagogic Liberal Health Minister casually explains his single-payer, government-run, universal health-care system's rationing rationale; it would make Michael Moore cringe.
Smitherman says: “they have been operating beyond the level of their approved budget. Accordingly, consistent with the notion that we are all accountable and responsible to work within an approved volume, they are taking the action necessary to align their budget, as all hospitals in the province are expected to.”
In light of this Smitherman Principle, maybe Liberal MPP Jim Bradley can now explain the high death rate in his St. Catharines hospital – is that what has been happening here?
Mortality rate = alignment?
So, make sure, folks, that you get sick before your hospital’s approved budget goes out of alignment.
And if you’re unlucky enough to get sick after the approved Liberal quota has been reached – well, Smitherman has now put you on notice – don't expect to be bailed out – not in the “People’s System”, and not if George is in charge.
You’ll have to go to the States. Make room, Mike.
Sunday, April 13, 2008
Go Train to Niagara runs into Liberal fog
"Niagara on track for GO service?" was the headline question in the St. Catharines Standard, Apr.9, 2008, a question that the story couldn’t quite clearly answer!
St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley – now Ontario's Transportation Minister – said “There are some major works that would have to be done in Hamilton, I am told, that is to ensure you could bring a line to Niagara.”
Yet eight years ago, Bradley was blustering in opposition “It is time…to extend GO Transit to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls to provide commuters with an alternative to crammed, increasingly expensive and often unsafe highways, and to make it easier for tourists from the Greater Toronto Area to visit Niagara.” (Niagara Falls Review, May 3, 2000) ("Unsafe highways"?? Well, you have the obligation now, Mr. Bradley, to make certain they ARE safe.)
Bradley has been disingenuous regarding GO Transit for years. He makes vague promises that he’s in favour of it, but when he’s in power, does incrementally little about it. We had no GO service – neither rail, nor bus, in Niagara since he’s been in office. Now, ‘he’s been told’ that track work first has to be done at Hamilton for the train to get to Niagara – what…wasn’t he aware of that years ago when he was badgering for GO in opposition? Was Bradley ever specific as to the costs required to deliver GO train service to Niagara?
Suddenly, now that he’s in government, Bradley has conveniently discovered that track work needs to be done?! Why, then, hadn’t that track work been started in 2003, when the Liberals were elected, if Niagara-bound GO Transit was such a Bradley priority? Or, did Bradley even know what he was talking about when he was making his earlier promises? And one is never quite sure, when Bradley blusters about GO Transit, what he actually means – specifically, is he referring to train, or to bus, service? And then, is he referring to train/bus commuter, or train/bus tourist, service? Does he mean taking a bus to the train, for example, from Niagara to Hamilton? Or is he talking about bringing the train from Hamilton to Niagara? Announcing funding for building a series of parking lots isn't much of an answer.
If in 2000, Bradley was alluding to “GO Transit” as a bus service to Niagara – well, why hasn’t THAT been ALREADY done??! He’s had since 2003 to implement that!
Or is Bradley referring to the more complex rail transit being instituted into Niagara in the form of the GO train? That’s what Bradley intimated in his 2007 re-election campaign at the all-candidate’s debate held at the CAW hall – Bradley talked about the GO “TRAIN” – not bus. Shortly after the election, Bradley was anointed as Ontario’s transit czar, and suddenly, he was musing that GO might - someday - arrive in Niagara, in the form of a bus service!
Now the Standard reports that GO Transit might be arriving as a weekend train to Niagara –which sounds encouraging until you realize they were saying the same thing back in 2001!
The St. Catharines Standard story “Casino trains no big deal for Niagara” (Dec.29, 2001) reported that GO trains were available for use on Niagara runs because, obviously, they were sitting essentially idle on weekends. But the twist then was that this had something to do with the casino – as if the casino had to approve it.
The story read:
“If GO Transit starts running a weekend train service to Niagara Falls at the behest of Casino Niagara, the transportation problems of the region won't be solved, says Debbie Zimmerman.
But Niagara Region's chair said in an interview that won't stop Niagara from taking advantage of the service.
"It would certainly be a part of the whole transportation story we are working on," she said.
Zimmerman was responding to a Wednesday report by The Canadian Press that GO Transit has talked to Casino Niagara about running trains from Toronto to Niagara Falls on the weekend because of the availability of engines and cars from GO's weekday commuter fleet.
The report quoted Gary McNeil, managing director of GO Transit, as saying trains for the casino are a possibility but not likely until after the new $800-million casino opens in 2004.
The casino operators are interested, McNeil said, but can't go anywhere with the idea yet because the present casino is full to capacity every weekend.”
Well, it's now 2008 ... what’s the excuse going to be today – that the casino is now NOT “full to capacity”, so NOW the GO train service is okay?!
Can Jim Bradley explain this? Does bringing in GO train service, using existing tracks and stations, have more to do with the needs of the casinos, or more to do, as Bradley likes to say, with smog and overcrowded highways? If VIA can manage to rustle up a bike train to Niagara using existing tracks, why hasn’t Bradley’s Liberal government already implemented at least weekend GO train service years ago??
After all, McGuinty and his local Niagara Liberal MPP's have had since 2003 to reach a 'terms-of-use agreement' with track-owner CN Rail.
Jim Bradley used to bluster that "we have over 2,000 premature deaths" in Ontario caused by smog. "It costs us a billion dollars a year," claimed then-environment critic Bradley (CBC, Jun.22, 2003).
So, why then hasn't this 'billion dollar cost', as alleged by Bradley, been used to actually close Nanticoke, or to bring Go trains to Niagara? Because the Liberals have done nothing about Nanticoke, nor brought GO trains to Niagara, it must have already cost, over five years of Liberal rule (according to Jim Bradley's figures) at least 10, 000 lives and five billion dollars.
Do the Liberals have the foggiest idea?
St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley – now Ontario's Transportation Minister – said “There are some major works that would have to be done in Hamilton, I am told, that is to ensure you could bring a line to Niagara.”
Yet eight years ago, Bradley was blustering in opposition “It is time…to extend GO Transit to St. Catharines and Niagara Falls to provide commuters with an alternative to crammed, increasingly expensive and often unsafe highways, and to make it easier for tourists from the Greater Toronto Area to visit Niagara.” (Niagara Falls Review, May 3, 2000) ("Unsafe highways"?? Well, you have the obligation now, Mr. Bradley, to make certain they ARE safe.)
Bradley has been disingenuous regarding GO Transit for years. He makes vague promises that he’s in favour of it, but when he’s in power, does incrementally little about it. We had no GO service – neither rail, nor bus, in Niagara since he’s been in office. Now, ‘he’s been told’ that track work first has to be done at Hamilton for the train to get to Niagara – what…wasn’t he aware of that years ago when he was badgering for GO in opposition? Was Bradley ever specific as to the costs required to deliver GO train service to Niagara?
Suddenly, now that he’s in government, Bradley has conveniently discovered that track work needs to be done?! Why, then, hadn’t that track work been started in 2003, when the Liberals were elected, if Niagara-bound GO Transit was such a Bradley priority? Or, did Bradley even know what he was talking about when he was making his earlier promises? And one is never quite sure, when Bradley blusters about GO Transit, what he actually means – specifically, is he referring to train, or to bus, service? And then, is he referring to train/bus commuter, or train/bus tourist, service? Does he mean taking a bus to the train, for example, from Niagara to Hamilton? Or is he talking about bringing the train from Hamilton to Niagara? Announcing funding for building a series of parking lots isn't much of an answer.
If in 2000, Bradley was alluding to “GO Transit” as a bus service to Niagara – well, why hasn’t THAT been ALREADY done??! He’s had since 2003 to implement that!
Or is Bradley referring to the more complex rail transit being instituted into Niagara in the form of the GO train? That’s what Bradley intimated in his 2007 re-election campaign at the all-candidate’s debate held at the CAW hall – Bradley talked about the GO “TRAIN” – not bus. Shortly after the election, Bradley was anointed as Ontario’s transit czar, and suddenly, he was musing that GO might - someday - arrive in Niagara, in the form of a bus service!
Now the Standard reports that GO Transit might be arriving as a weekend train to Niagara –which sounds encouraging until you realize they were saying the same thing back in 2001!
The St. Catharines Standard story “Casino trains no big deal for Niagara” (Dec.29, 2001) reported that GO trains were available for use on Niagara runs because, obviously, they were sitting essentially idle on weekends. But the twist then was that this had something to do with the casino – as if the casino had to approve it.
The story read:
“If GO Transit starts running a weekend train service to Niagara Falls at the behest of Casino Niagara, the transportation problems of the region won't be solved, says Debbie Zimmerman.
But Niagara Region's chair said in an interview that won't stop Niagara from taking advantage of the service.
"It would certainly be a part of the whole transportation story we are working on," she said.
Zimmerman was responding to a Wednesday report by The Canadian Press that GO Transit has talked to Casino Niagara about running trains from Toronto to Niagara Falls on the weekend because of the availability of engines and cars from GO's weekday commuter fleet.
The report quoted Gary McNeil, managing director of GO Transit, as saying trains for the casino are a possibility but not likely until after the new $800-million casino opens in 2004.
The casino operators are interested, McNeil said, but can't go anywhere with the idea yet because the present casino is full to capacity every weekend.”
Well, it's now 2008 ... what’s the excuse going to be today – that the casino is now NOT “full to capacity”, so NOW the GO train service is okay?!
Can Jim Bradley explain this? Does bringing in GO train service, using existing tracks and stations, have more to do with the needs of the casinos, or more to do, as Bradley likes to say, with smog and overcrowded highways? If VIA can manage to rustle up a bike train to Niagara using existing tracks, why hasn’t Bradley’s Liberal government already implemented at least weekend GO train service years ago??
After all, McGuinty and his local Niagara Liberal MPP's have had since 2003 to reach a 'terms-of-use agreement' with track-owner CN Rail.
Jim Bradley used to bluster that "we have over 2,000 premature deaths" in Ontario caused by smog. "It costs us a billion dollars a year," claimed then-environment critic Bradley (CBC, Jun.22, 2003).
So, why then hasn't this 'billion dollar cost', as alleged by Bradley, been used to actually close Nanticoke, or to bring Go trains to Niagara? Because the Liberals have done nothing about Nanticoke, nor brought GO trains to Niagara, it must have already cost, over five years of Liberal rule (according to Jim Bradley's figures) at least 10, 000 lives and five billion dollars.
Do the Liberals have the foggiest idea?
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Liberal health-care: once, free for all; now, a free-for-all
Don Meisner wrote in “We spend more on health care, but where is it going?”, (St. Catharines Standard, Apr.9, 2008):
“Re: Blame hospital woes on Bill 26, The Standard, April 1.
Stanley Laugher should blame our health-care woes on Bob Rae. When he was premier, he gave the nurses a huge raise without the proper increase of funds to hospitals.
When Rae left office he left an $11-billion deficit and we were in a recession. Premier Mike Harris turned that around and even cut taxes and gave us a rebate.
The current government was allowed to add $1.5 billion to the deficit and blame it on Harris.
In four short years, the Liberals have increased spending by close to 50 per cent and have given us the largest tax increase - which they don't call a tax increase.
Being a senior, I have not had a break in taxes since Harris was premier. What the province spends money on in its budget doesn't affect me very much except on health - and the health-care dollars don't seem to be targeted very well as there is still a lot of debt at hospital boards throughout the province.”
I wonder if St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley will bother to answer the above, another health-care letter from one of his constituents?
Wait a minute – Jim’s busy as a crime-fighter now – thinking about confiscating vehicles and suspending the licenses of people caught with illegal guns. Just a thought, Jim: how about supporting tougher mandatory, no-plea-bargain jail time for criminals possessing illegal weapons?
When they’re in jail, they won’t need the car, nor the license. Does Bradley support the federal government’s crime bill? Has Bradley badgered the Liberal-dominated senate to quickly pass that legislation? Liberals: soft on crime?...feh!
But hey, ‘coincidentally’ rolling with Toronto mayor David ‘Hiring-more-cops-is-too-expensive’ Miller’s gun-ban call, Jim Bradley's Liberals can look like they're actually doing something, when they're not: smoke and mirrors. (Much like the Liberal 'review of reviews' at the NHS)
It’s better to whine about the federal government’s supposed-lack of a ‘national gun ban’, than for Ontario Liberal MPP’s to explain why newspapers such as the St. Catharines Standard carry headlines like “Hospitals may have to cut costs” (Apr.9, 2008), or “Many hospitals forecast deficits”, (Toronto Star, Apr.9, 2008).
Liberal MPP Jim Bradley continues to hide and smugly avoid explaining why an increasing number of his government-run health-care system’s hospitals are in deficit.
Can Jim Bradley or Liberal Health Minister George Smitherman explain what Smitherman means when he says (in regards to hospitals, which, to balance their (Liberal) budgets, are considering laying off nurses and closing beds) that “the alternative is to have a free-for-all where the hospitals spend whatever they want and send the bill at the end of the year, and the people’s health-care system can’t be sustained on that basis” ?
Can Bradley or Smitherman provide any examples of where the Niagara Health System, for example, is flagrantly spending its Liberal-rationed budget?
Where is the NHS spending money unnecessarily? Where is this alleged “free-for-all” taking place?!
The much-vaunted medicare-monopoly scheme so-extolled by the Tommy Douglas crowd was all about sending the bill to the government!!
It was all about health-care being (supposedly) free for all - wasn't it?
The David Peterson Liberal government’s extra-billing ban was all about sending the bill to the government!!
The McGuinty Liberal’s Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act was all about sending the bill to the government!
When were we notified that the “people’s system” (as Smitherman calls it) now consists of imposed cost-containment cuts, budget limits, rationing, and premium increases – and all that within a restrictive monopoly where patients are legally banned by Liberal legislation from obtaining alternate private health coverage?
Another story, “Liberals misled voters over coverage of prostate tests, opposition charges”, (St. Catharines Standard, Apr.10, 2008) reported that during the 2007 election, the Liberals coyly weren’t specific that the timing of their promises to cover PSA tests wouldn’t start until January 2009. Smitherman “admitted there hadn’t been a lot of publicity about the timing. “I’m not sure if it was announced before,” he said. Oh, how convenient!
Yet somehow, Smitherman is sure that the “people’s system” is in a free-for-all spending frenzy?
“Re: Blame hospital woes on Bill 26, The Standard, April 1.
Stanley Laugher should blame our health-care woes on Bob Rae. When he was premier, he gave the nurses a huge raise without the proper increase of funds to hospitals.
When Rae left office he left an $11-billion deficit and we were in a recession. Premier Mike Harris turned that around and even cut taxes and gave us a rebate.
The current government was allowed to add $1.5 billion to the deficit and blame it on Harris.
In four short years, the Liberals have increased spending by close to 50 per cent and have given us the largest tax increase - which they don't call a tax increase.
Being a senior, I have not had a break in taxes since Harris was premier. What the province spends money on in its budget doesn't affect me very much except on health - and the health-care dollars don't seem to be targeted very well as there is still a lot of debt at hospital boards throughout the province.”
I wonder if St. Catharines Liberal MPP Jim Bradley will bother to answer the above, another health-care letter from one of his constituents?
Wait a minute – Jim’s busy as a crime-fighter now – thinking about confiscating vehicles and suspending the licenses of people caught with illegal guns. Just a thought, Jim: how about supporting tougher mandatory, no-plea-bargain jail time for criminals possessing illegal weapons?
When they’re in jail, they won’t need the car, nor the license. Does Bradley support the federal government’s crime bill? Has Bradley badgered the Liberal-dominated senate to quickly pass that legislation? Liberals: soft on crime?...feh!
But hey, ‘coincidentally’ rolling with Toronto mayor David ‘Hiring-more-cops-is-too-expensive’ Miller’s gun-ban call, Jim Bradley's Liberals can look like they're actually doing something, when they're not: smoke and mirrors. (Much like the Liberal 'review of reviews' at the NHS)
It’s better to whine about the federal government’s supposed-lack of a ‘national gun ban’, than for Ontario Liberal MPP’s to explain why newspapers such as the St. Catharines Standard carry headlines like “Hospitals may have to cut costs” (Apr.9, 2008), or “Many hospitals forecast deficits”, (Toronto Star, Apr.9, 2008).
Liberal MPP Jim Bradley continues to hide and smugly avoid explaining why an increasing number of his government-run health-care system’s hospitals are in deficit.
Can Jim Bradley or Liberal Health Minister George Smitherman explain what Smitherman means when he says (in regards to hospitals, which, to balance their (Liberal) budgets, are considering laying off nurses and closing beds) that “the alternative is to have a free-for-all where the hospitals spend whatever they want and send the bill at the end of the year, and the people’s health-care system can’t be sustained on that basis” ?
Can Bradley or Smitherman provide any examples of where the Niagara Health System, for example, is flagrantly spending its Liberal-rationed budget?
Where is the NHS spending money unnecessarily? Where is this alleged “free-for-all” taking place?!
The much-vaunted medicare-monopoly scheme so-extolled by the Tommy Douglas crowd was all about sending the bill to the government!!
It was all about health-care being (supposedly) free for all - wasn't it?
The David Peterson Liberal government’s extra-billing ban was all about sending the bill to the government!!
The McGuinty Liberal’s Commitment to the Future of Medicare Act was all about sending the bill to the government!
When were we notified that the “people’s system” (as Smitherman calls it) now consists of imposed cost-containment cuts, budget limits, rationing, and premium increases – and all that within a restrictive monopoly where patients are legally banned by Liberal legislation from obtaining alternate private health coverage?
Another story, “Liberals misled voters over coverage of prostate tests, opposition charges”, (St. Catharines Standard, Apr.10, 2008) reported that during the 2007 election, the Liberals coyly weren’t specific that the timing of their promises to cover PSA tests wouldn’t start until January 2009. Smitherman “admitted there hadn’t been a lot of publicity about the timing. “I’m not sure if it was announced before,” he said. Oh, how convenient!
Yet somehow, Smitherman is sure that the “people’s system” is in a free-for-all spending frenzy?
Stephane "Bumbledore" Dion's synthetic sincerity.
[click photo to enlarge]
“Liberals Will Provide Constructive Opposition”, claimed Liberal Bill Graham! So, when is that going to happen??
Once again, Stephane "Bumbledore" Dion’s party – in typical Liberal fashion – says one thing, then does another. Their whiny, hypocritical act is getting tiresome, with all their chest-beating and wailing about this policy or that policy which they claim with synthetic sincerity that they disagree with, but then don't do anything about.
Once again, the Ottawa Liberal opposition folded like a Dion lawn-chair: this time on the immigration bill, where on Apr.9, 2008, the Grits voted in support of the immigration bill which Dion insistently claimed he was “adamantly opposed to”!! As John Ivison wrote in “The mind says no, the body says yes”, (National Post, Apr.10, 2008), the Liberals have become a political caricature which has moved beyond satire and into travesty.
Canada is indeed fortunate not to have these bumbling Grits in charge of anything. An example of wasted tree-pulp can be seen in the form of the above Liberal POOP-O-GRAM mailed in Apr. 2006 by Bill Graham.
Once again, the Ottawa Liberal opposition folded like a Dion lawn-chair: this time on the immigration bill, where on Apr.9, 2008, the Grits voted in support of the immigration bill which Dion insistently claimed he was “adamantly opposed to”!! As John Ivison wrote in “The mind says no, the body says yes”, (National Post, Apr.10, 2008), the Liberals have become a political caricature which has moved beyond satire and into travesty.
Canada is indeed fortunate not to have these bumbling Grits in charge of anything. An example of wasted tree-pulp can be seen in the form of the above Liberal POOP-O-GRAM mailed in Apr. 2006 by Bill Graham.
(see also:
A particularly impressive bit of Liberal B.S. spin is this sentence: “By electing Liberals as the Official Opposition, Canadians showed they wanted us to be a strong national force to ensure that Stephen Harper’s government does not neglect the progressive priorities supported by most Canadians”!
Liberals became the opposition because they didn’t win the election! Canadians didn’t want Adscam-slimed Grits in charge of anything. And we have now seen how the 'opposition' (if you want to call them that) Liberals demonstrate their “strong national force”: they continually complain about – but then support – the government at every step! This supposedly-"strong national force" of Liberals at times doesn't even bother to show up to vote on their own bills, for fear of precipitating an election!
Liberals became the opposition because they didn’t win the election! Canadians didn’t want Adscam-slimed Grits in charge of anything. And we have now seen how the 'opposition' (if you want to call them that) Liberals demonstrate their “strong national force”: they continually complain about – but then support – the government at every step! This supposedly-"strong national force" of Liberals at times doesn't even bother to show up to vote on their own bills, for fear of precipitating an election!
“Liberals Will Provide Constructive Opposition”, claimed Liberal Bill Graham! So, when is that going to happen??
"We will support the government when we believe it is good for Canadians, but we will oppose when it's not. That is what you elected us to do, " claimed Graham at the end of his Liberal POOP-O-GRAM. Well, apparently -according to the Liberals themselves, then - the Harper government HAS done what is good for all Canadians, because the Liberals HAVE NOT OPPOSED anything, as they said they would!!! Was Liberal leader Bill Graham lying then when he wrote that message? Or is Liberal leader Bumbledore Dion lying now, when he says the Liberals will bide their time before they precipitate an election? Were Liberals elected to constructively oppose (Graham), or to whine and wait (Dion)?
Liberal leader Graham wrote "we were elected to provide a constructive, effective and principled opposition, not to prop up the Conservative government". Noble talk then, but today, where's Dion's action ?? Dion's so-called great Liberal principles amount to nothing more than propping up the current government! Perhaps they should remain the nominal 'opposition' indefinitely!
By all accounts, it is demonstrably Prime Minister Harper and the Conservatives who in fact are the strong national force, working - from a minority standing - in the interests of all Canadians: much more impressive then the majority fiats of King Chretien.
As Bumbledore Dion himself said to Michael {“we didn’t get it done”} Ignatieff during the Liberal leadership debate: "Do you think it’s easy to make priorities"?!
*
As Bumbledore Dion himself said to Michael {“we didn’t get it done”} Ignatieff during the Liberal leadership debate: "Do you think it’s easy to make priorities"?!
*
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Ontario Liberals claim medicare is a "free-for-all": so they cut hospital beds and nurses!
Joanna Smith wrote in “Hospital cuts spark storm”, (Toronto Star, April 9, 2008):
“Health Minister George Smitherman said there will be no "blank cheque" to help hospitals facing staff and service cuts despite a storm that erupted yesterday over the loss of up to 72 nursing positions at two GTA hospitals.
"How can you justify the firing of nurses?" Progressive Conservative health critic Elizabeth Witmer thundered at Smitherman repeatedly in the Legislature's daily question period.
Smitherman said Rouge Valley Health System hospitals in Ajax and Scarborough planning to cut up to 220 jobs and close 36 beds cannot expect a bailout because they have been poorly run and exceeded their budget.
"I don't prefer that in any circumstance," he said of the cuts. "But the alternative is to have a free-for-all where hospitals spend whatever they want and send the bill at the end of the year. The people's health system can't be sustained on that basis."
Smitherman said any nurses that lose their jobs at the Ajax and Pickering hospital or Scarborough Centenary can expect to find work nearby as the government hires 9,000 more nurses by 2011.
A report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information last November showed Rouge Valley had the fifth-highest mortality rate among hospitals in the GTA.
"You don't solve an issue as serious as this by cutting the number of RNs on staff," said Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. "You do the opposite."
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the financial trouble hospitals are facing is in part due to millions of extra dollars going to build and expand hospitals with public-private partnerships that pay a premium to the builders.
"Less and less is going to patient care and more and more of the money is being siphoned off by profit-driven companies."
Ontario Health Coalition director Natalie Mehra criticized the level of secrecy surrounding the allocation of public money, especially since a large number of hospitals are threatened with deficits.
"This is really a regime of secrecy and top-down restructuring that is almost guaranteed to create significant problems in the health system for access and with no proper feedback group or evaluation," Mehra said. "It's really just bad governance."
Rouge Valley Health System is not alone in struggling to balance its books this spring to comply with zero-deficit legislation, but the answer to how many hospitals are in that situation is still unknown.
An Ontario Hospital Association survey conducted about a month ago as a pre-budget exercise revealed 75 Ontario hospitals forecast deficits for fiscal 2008/09. For fiscal 2009/10, that number increased to 103 of the 151 hospitals that responded to the survey.
Up to 19 hospitals in the GTA forecast deficits in 2008/09 and 26 in 2009/10.
The survey, which was not intended for public release, did not name individual hospitals or include the size of the forecasted deficits.
But the OHA said these projections were based on hospital funding that had been announced up to that point: increases of 2.4 per cent for 2008/09 and 2.1 per cent for 2009/10.
The provincial budget has since allocated a 6.1 per cent funding increase.
Since the Ministry of Health has not revealed how that money will be divvied up, hospitals continue negotiating while still somewhat in the dark.
"Our opinion is that there is not much point in projecting a deficit when you don't have all the information on what your revenues are going to be," said Tom Closson, CEO for the OHA.
This is the first time hospitals are negotiating two-year funding agreements with the newly created Local Health Integration Networks – agencies set up by the government to run health care on a regional basis and decide which services to fund and where. The "accountability agreements" were supposed to have been signed by the end of last month but Closson said all the LHINs have been granting hospitals deadline extensions as they wait for additional funding announcements.
He also said some negotiations involve allowing hospitals to operate with a deficit in 2008/09 so long as they balance the books by 2009/10.
Closson said the ministry must estimate by April 15 how much of the funding increases will go to growth, priority programs, inflation and other needs.
"I would hope by the end of April, at the latest, that the hospitals will have a clearer picture of whether there are additional funds that each one of them is going to receive," Closson said, adding that it could be June before all the accountability agreements are put into place.
Smitherman yesterday pointed to a recent peer review conducted by the Central East LHIN that concluded years of mismanagement and overspending had pushed Rouge Valley into its critical financial situation.
"There's room for improvement," said Smitherman, who has in previous years come through with year-end funds to help hospitals after weeks of rhetoric and wrangling.
"It wouldn't be fair to bail out Rouge Valley for activity that other hospitals are not involved in," he added. "I think the taxpayers are going to thank goodness, for once, there's a minister of health and a government that doesn't allow hospitals to operate on a blank cheque basis."
Ontario's health budget is now $40 billion and accounts for almost half of the government's spending on programs, with Premier Dalton McGuinty noting health spending is up 37 per cent since he took power in 2003.
Critics said Smitherman is ignoring the needs of hospitals in fast-growing areas.”
I say the Liberals are ignoring the health-care needs of hospitals in all areas.
Is that Jim Bradley’s Liberal government-run health monopoly cutting jobs and closing beds in hospitals? (yes, it is!)
Is that Jim Bradley’s Liberal government firing nurses – some of the supposed “5,000 nurses” whomt they supposedly hired?! (yes!)
Is that Jim Bradley's Liberal government saying that hospitals shouldn't be doing whatever it takes to provide health-care to Ontarians who need it?! (yes!)
If it is the "people's system" - as an ever-more-Soviet-sounding-Smitherman now calls his medicare monopoly - then why isn't Smitherman's "system" working FOR THE PEOPLE, George??
Smitherman was quoted using the phrase "free-for-all" in the above Apr.9, 2008 Star story - yet he said the same thing about the Niagara Health System in the St. Catharines Standard, Dec. 7, 2007, (See: Liberals ignore call for health-monopoly investigation), where he lectured:
"I do think the Niagara Health System likes to rely a little bit too much on the idea that it's all about money, and I think that's a fallacy. I think (that argument) can become a little too relied upon. What it kind of suggests is the only thing that's the answer to health-care woes is a fiscal free-for-all, spend whatever you want."
"Spend whatever you want"??
Smitherman's health monopoly is not providing us with what we NEED, let alone with what we want!
Smitherman thinks that the health-care monopoly -which he has controlled for five years - is on a spending "free-for-all" ?? Patients are dying in his Liberal health-monopoly's overcrowded emergency-room hallways! Where is all this flagrant spending occurring? The Ontario Auditor recently reported that the Liberals don't even have a clue of how many operating rooms they have - and many of them are closed or understaffed, anyway! We just had 190 surgery cancellations here in the NHS during March break!
Rouge Valley had the fifth-highest mortality rate in CIHI’s Nov. 2007 study.
But here in St. Catharines, our hospital, in Liberal MP Jim Bradley’s own riding, had the third-highest mortality-rate in Canada … and Jim Bradley has said nothing to explain that shocking and disgraceful revelation.
When the the Niagara Health System said in Dec. 2007 they needed more money – what answer did Bradley provide? Some Grit bafflegab about reviewing governance models? Talk about the futility of carefully re-arranging the deck chairs while holes in the big ship grow ever-larger! Whether it’s in Toronto or Niagara or Sarnia, the problems within Ontario’s Liberal health-monopoly are recurring, and systemic.
Bradley hides from answering questions about where our health-taxes are being spent, and whether they are being allocated efficiently and appropriately.
Smitherman said there will be no "blank cheque" to help hospitals facing staff and service cuts: in other words, Jim Bradley’s Liberals are forcing hospitals (in the "people's system", remember!) to cut service and ration treatment; to ‘live within their means’ – WHILE CONCURRENTLY DENYING CITIZENS THE LEGAL RIGHT TO PURCHASE THEIR OWN HEALTH-CARE IN ONTARIO.
On what basis is Smitherman sustaining his monopoly - on cuts to our coverage!?
And he thinks we're supposed to say "thank goodness"??!
Some of us will say "Go to Hell, Smitherman".
*
“Health Minister George Smitherman said there will be no "blank cheque" to help hospitals facing staff and service cuts despite a storm that erupted yesterday over the loss of up to 72 nursing positions at two GTA hospitals.
"How can you justify the firing of nurses?" Progressive Conservative health critic Elizabeth Witmer thundered at Smitherman repeatedly in the Legislature's daily question period.
Smitherman said Rouge Valley Health System hospitals in Ajax and Scarborough planning to cut up to 220 jobs and close 36 beds cannot expect a bailout because they have been poorly run and exceeded their budget.
"I don't prefer that in any circumstance," he said of the cuts. "But the alternative is to have a free-for-all where hospitals spend whatever they want and send the bill at the end of the year. The people's health system can't be sustained on that basis."
Smitherman said any nurses that lose their jobs at the Ajax and Pickering hospital or Scarborough Centenary can expect to find work nearby as the government hires 9,000 more nurses by 2011.
A report released by the Canadian Institute for Health Information last November showed Rouge Valley had the fifth-highest mortality rate among hospitals in the GTA.
"You don't solve an issue as serious as this by cutting the number of RNs on staff," said Doris Grinspun, executive director of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario. "You do the opposite."
NDP Leader Howard Hampton said the financial trouble hospitals are facing is in part due to millions of extra dollars going to build and expand hospitals with public-private partnerships that pay a premium to the builders.
"Less and less is going to patient care and more and more of the money is being siphoned off by profit-driven companies."
Ontario Health Coalition director Natalie Mehra criticized the level of secrecy surrounding the allocation of public money, especially since a large number of hospitals are threatened with deficits.
"This is really a regime of secrecy and top-down restructuring that is almost guaranteed to create significant problems in the health system for access and with no proper feedback group or evaluation," Mehra said. "It's really just bad governance."
Rouge Valley Health System is not alone in struggling to balance its books this spring to comply with zero-deficit legislation, but the answer to how many hospitals are in that situation is still unknown.
An Ontario Hospital Association survey conducted about a month ago as a pre-budget exercise revealed 75 Ontario hospitals forecast deficits for fiscal 2008/09. For fiscal 2009/10, that number increased to 103 of the 151 hospitals that responded to the survey.
Up to 19 hospitals in the GTA forecast deficits in 2008/09 and 26 in 2009/10.
The survey, which was not intended for public release, did not name individual hospitals or include the size of the forecasted deficits.
But the OHA said these projections were based on hospital funding that had been announced up to that point: increases of 2.4 per cent for 2008/09 and 2.1 per cent for 2009/10.
The provincial budget has since allocated a 6.1 per cent funding increase.
Since the Ministry of Health has not revealed how that money will be divvied up, hospitals continue negotiating while still somewhat in the dark.
"Our opinion is that there is not much point in projecting a deficit when you don't have all the information on what your revenues are going to be," said Tom Closson, CEO for the OHA.
This is the first time hospitals are negotiating two-year funding agreements with the newly created Local Health Integration Networks – agencies set up by the government to run health care on a regional basis and decide which services to fund and where. The "accountability agreements" were supposed to have been signed by the end of last month but Closson said all the LHINs have been granting hospitals deadline extensions as they wait for additional funding announcements.
He also said some negotiations involve allowing hospitals to operate with a deficit in 2008/09 so long as they balance the books by 2009/10.
Closson said the ministry must estimate by April 15 how much of the funding increases will go to growth, priority programs, inflation and other needs.
"I would hope by the end of April, at the latest, that the hospitals will have a clearer picture of whether there are additional funds that each one of them is going to receive," Closson said, adding that it could be June before all the accountability agreements are put into place.
Smitherman yesterday pointed to a recent peer review conducted by the Central East LHIN that concluded years of mismanagement and overspending had pushed Rouge Valley into its critical financial situation.
"There's room for improvement," said Smitherman, who has in previous years come through with year-end funds to help hospitals after weeks of rhetoric and wrangling.
"It wouldn't be fair to bail out Rouge Valley for activity that other hospitals are not involved in," he added. "I think the taxpayers are going to thank goodness, for once, there's a minister of health and a government that doesn't allow hospitals to operate on a blank cheque basis."
Ontario's health budget is now $40 billion and accounts for almost half of the government's spending on programs, with Premier Dalton McGuinty noting health spending is up 37 per cent since he took power in 2003.
Critics said Smitherman is ignoring the needs of hospitals in fast-growing areas.”
I say the Liberals are ignoring the health-care needs of hospitals in all areas.
Is that Jim Bradley’s Liberal government-run health monopoly cutting jobs and closing beds in hospitals? (yes, it is!)
Is that Jim Bradley’s Liberal government firing nurses – some of the supposed “5,000 nurses” whomt they supposedly hired?! (yes!)
Is that Jim Bradley's Liberal government saying that hospitals shouldn't be doing whatever it takes to provide health-care to Ontarians who need it?! (yes!)
If it is the "people's system" - as an ever-more-Soviet-sounding-Smitherman now calls his medicare monopoly - then why isn't Smitherman's "system" working FOR THE PEOPLE, George??
Smitherman was quoted using the phrase "free-for-all" in the above Apr.9, 2008 Star story - yet he said the same thing about the Niagara Health System in the St. Catharines Standard, Dec. 7, 2007, (See: Liberals ignore call for health-monopoly investigation), where he lectured:
"I do think the Niagara Health System likes to rely a little bit too much on the idea that it's all about money, and I think that's a fallacy. I think (that argument) can become a little too relied upon. What it kind of suggests is the only thing that's the answer to health-care woes is a fiscal free-for-all, spend whatever you want."
"Spend whatever you want"??
Smitherman's health monopoly is not providing us with what we NEED, let alone with what we want!
Smitherman thinks that the health-care monopoly -which he has controlled for five years - is on a spending "free-for-all" ?? Patients are dying in his Liberal health-monopoly's overcrowded emergency-room hallways! Where is all this flagrant spending occurring? The Ontario Auditor recently reported that the Liberals don't even have a clue of how many operating rooms they have - and many of them are closed or understaffed, anyway! We just had 190 surgery cancellations here in the NHS during March break!
Rouge Valley had the fifth-highest mortality rate in CIHI’s Nov. 2007 study.
But here in St. Catharines, our hospital, in Liberal MP Jim Bradley’s own riding, had the third-highest mortality-rate in Canada … and Jim Bradley has said nothing to explain that shocking and disgraceful revelation.
When the the Niagara Health System said in Dec. 2007 they needed more money – what answer did Bradley provide? Some Grit bafflegab about reviewing governance models? Talk about the futility of carefully re-arranging the deck chairs while holes in the big ship grow ever-larger! Whether it’s in Toronto or Niagara or Sarnia, the problems within Ontario’s Liberal health-monopoly are recurring, and systemic.
Bradley hides from answering questions about where our health-taxes are being spent, and whether they are being allocated efficiently and appropriately.
Smitherman said there will be no "blank cheque" to help hospitals facing staff and service cuts: in other words, Jim Bradley’s Liberals are forcing hospitals (in the "people's system", remember!) to cut service and ration treatment; to ‘live within their means’ – WHILE CONCURRENTLY DENYING CITIZENS THE LEGAL RIGHT TO PURCHASE THEIR OWN HEALTH-CARE IN ONTARIO.
On what basis is Smitherman sustaining his monopoly - on cuts to our coverage!?
And he thinks we're supposed to say "thank goodness"??!
Some of us will say "Go to Hell, Smitherman".
*
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
"They can't even kill you properly" in a Liberal health-care system
Debbi Chase wrote in “Our health-care spending isn’t showing up at our hospitals”, (St. Catharines Standard, Apr.8, 2008):
“I would like to express my utter disgust and disgrace at the way people are treated at the St. Catharines General Hospital.
I have seen it, and have heard a lot of other people complain about it, but recently we lost our mother and I can’t tell you how appalling it is to watch your own mother die and be treated with such incompetence. I would give better treatment to a dog.
I would like to know where all our health-care money is going. The way the whole hospital is being run is complete nonsense.
What is the point in building a new hospital when the old one is being run in such a disgraceful manner?
I remember the old days when you were treated like a human being.
My mother’s dying words were: “They can’t even kill you properly in this place.”
If that isn’t sad, I certainly don’t know what is.”
I wonder if St. Catharines Liberal Jim Bradley has any answers for the Chase family, which don’t include the words ‘blame Mike Harris’?
This is happening in Jim Bradley’s wonderful Liberal government-run, single-payer health-care monopoly, where, after five years of Liberal health-care mismanagement, patients are being disgracefully treated right in Bradley’s own backyard.
And yes, this is the same Niagara Health System hospital which was revealed to have the third-highest mortality rate in Canada (according to a Nov.2007 CIHI study), which Jim Bradley and his Liberals still have not bothered to explain.
A smug and arrogant Liberal Jim Bradley doesn’t bother to respond when I ask him where our health-care taxes actually go, but will Bradley continue to ignore, run and hide from other constituents as well?
Is this what Bradley intends to do until the next election, in 2011? What a disgrace. What a shameful, bloody Liberal disgrace.
*
“I would like to express my utter disgust and disgrace at the way people are treated at the St. Catharines General Hospital.
I have seen it, and have heard a lot of other people complain about it, but recently we lost our mother and I can’t tell you how appalling it is to watch your own mother die and be treated with such incompetence. I would give better treatment to a dog.
I would like to know where all our health-care money is going. The way the whole hospital is being run is complete nonsense.
What is the point in building a new hospital when the old one is being run in such a disgraceful manner?
I remember the old days when you were treated like a human being.
My mother’s dying words were: “They can’t even kill you properly in this place.”
If that isn’t sad, I certainly don’t know what is.”
I wonder if St. Catharines Liberal Jim Bradley has any answers for the Chase family, which don’t include the words ‘blame Mike Harris’?
This is happening in Jim Bradley’s wonderful Liberal government-run, single-payer health-care monopoly, where, after five years of Liberal health-care mismanagement, patients are being disgracefully treated right in Bradley’s own backyard.
And yes, this is the same Niagara Health System hospital which was revealed to have the third-highest mortality rate in Canada (according to a Nov.2007 CIHI study), which Jim Bradley and his Liberals still have not bothered to explain.
A smug and arrogant Liberal Jim Bradley doesn’t bother to respond when I ask him where our health-care taxes actually go, but will Bradley continue to ignore, run and hide from other constituents as well?
Is this what Bradley intends to do until the next election, in 2011? What a disgrace. What a shameful, bloody Liberal disgrace.
*
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
You [ insert colour here ] bastards!
Googling (on Apr.8, 2008) the search terms [“Russell Peters” and “Juno” and “brown bastards”] yielded not even one result.
So I Googled [“Rob Ford” and “oriental”] ... which yielded 13,000 results!
Many of these were the obligatory denunciations from the politically-correct, tut-tutting about Ford’s supposedly-evil remarks about ‘Orientals working like dogs’.
Yet, when comedian Russell Peters hosted the nationally-televised Juno Awards, within minutes into his routine he referred to South Asians with his trademark “you brown bastards”… and no one says anything? No high-brow moralistic censure about such insulting humour leading to the downfall of Canadian society??
Here’s a typical moralistic story from CBC News, Mar.7, 2008, whining about Ford, titled “Outdated term 'Oriental' has no place at city hall: prof”:
“It's time for elected officials in Ontario to retire the term "Oriental" because it's outdated and offensive, says a university professor who has written on the subject.
Anthony Chan, a former broadcaster who works as a Canadian studies professor at the University of Washington, made the comment after a Toronto city councillor referred to "Oriental people" this week in a debate about shopping on statutory holidays.
Coun. Rob Ford said: "Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That's why they are successful in life."
Ford went on: "I'm telling you, Oriental people, they're slowly taking over.… They're hard, hard workers."
Ford has apologized for his choice of words, but Chan, who obtained his PhD from York University in Toronto, said the term is really an ethnic slur that should be laid to rest.
Chan said he understands the term "Oriental" continues to be part of some people's lexicon but the acceptable, and more accurate, term to use these days is "Asian."
Oriental refers to the Orient, which has been used to refer to the Far East. Historically, the Orient was a term used in Western culture to refer to Asia.
Chan said, at the very least, Ford has raised an important issue by using the term. "I love a guy like that because he brings out what we need to think about," he said.
But he said using such a term undermines all the talk in Toronto about diversity. "When you start demeaning people, the whole diversity and the whole attitude of equity and fairness and social justice is just not there," he said.
Chan first raised the issue of the inappropriate use of the word "Oriental" in a paper he wrote in 1978, while a student at York University.
Chan, currently on sabbatical from his job at the University of Washington, is a filmmaker and author. He works at the Canadian Studies Centre of the university's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.”
It is a comedy, is it not, when egghead profs raise red flags about “ethnic slurs”, claiming "When you start demeaning people, the whole diversity and the whole attitude of equity and fairness and social justice is just not there." Come on.
So where’s the CBC story condemning Peters for his "ethnic slur"?
Where’s the “social justice” and “fairness” and “equity” when the host of a national awards show blithely 'demeans' the “brown bastards” in his audience?? Shit - that's funny!
Where’s Professor Chan and his pontifications about the ‘undermining of diversity’??
Talk about a double standard: If Ford had said what Peters had - in no matter what venue, a comedy club, or at Toronto City Hall (and it’s often hard to tell the difference between the two – no not between Ford and Peters; City Hall and a comedy club) - the politically-correct hypocrite nut-jobs would go ballistic.
Yes, apparently it’s only acceptable to demean your own kind. (oops – already I may have just insulted some Liberal or NDP brainwashed wackjob by writing that…oops…now the wackjobs are insulted…)
Maybe if Peters had referred to white bastards (or yellow or black? Why stop at colour? Their religions are a laugh, too, no??) , one or two smug Ford-bashers might then think to themselves…whaaa….?! Hey, wait a minute….!
Shouldn’t Toronto mayor/comedian David Miller and his socialist lapdogs on council be protecting the morality and the social equity of Torontonians who were watching the Junos on their TV’s in Toronto? Why does David Miller do nothing about the “brown bastards” racism being broadcast on TV’s in his city’s supposedly-clean streets, in his supposedly socially equitable neighbourhoods?! OMG!!! The purveyors of high-minded morality who deride Ford, must think the use of “brown bastards”, on the other hand, is cool, and acceptable!
Why, it’s a joke, fool…don’t you get it? Self-deprecating, and all that...
Hey, now, don’t go running off to the Human Rights Tribunal….
Here’s what Amy Ko wrote on Mar.14, 2008 as a response to the above CBC story:
“I am an Oriental, and I don't find the term "Oriental" offensive. Whether they work like dogs is another matter, but what's the big deal about the word Oriental? I did a google search on the word "Oriental." There are 71,300,000 results. Among them include Oriental hotels, Oriental babies, Oriental science, Oriental institute, Oriental theatre, Oriental bank, Oriental cat etc. Oriental seems like an elegant word to me. Let's look at the word Asian. Asians should include east Asians, south-east Asians, middle-east Asians, Eurasians etc They are all Asians, from Asia. In fact, being someone from Hong Kong, I'd rather be called an Oriental than a Chinese, because, hey, if I liked being a Chinese so much, I wouldn't come to Canada in the first place. So, Anthony Chan, I think you're wrong on this issue. I like being called an Oriental. A long-time immigrant from Hong Kong.”
Man, if only Rob was brown skinned, and Russell wasn’t. Would the messenger change the message?
So I Googled [“Rob Ford” and “oriental”] ... which yielded 13,000 results!
Many of these were the obligatory denunciations from the politically-correct, tut-tutting about Ford’s supposedly-evil remarks about ‘Orientals working like dogs’.
Yet, when comedian Russell Peters hosted the nationally-televised Juno Awards, within minutes into his routine he referred to South Asians with his trademark “you brown bastards”… and no one says anything? No high-brow moralistic censure about such insulting humour leading to the downfall of Canadian society??
Here’s a typical moralistic story from CBC News, Mar.7, 2008, whining about Ford, titled “Outdated term 'Oriental' has no place at city hall: prof”:
“It's time for elected officials in Ontario to retire the term "Oriental" because it's outdated and offensive, says a university professor who has written on the subject.
Anthony Chan, a former broadcaster who works as a Canadian studies professor at the University of Washington, made the comment after a Toronto city councillor referred to "Oriental people" this week in a debate about shopping on statutory holidays.
Coun. Rob Ford said: "Those Oriental people work like dogs. They work their hearts out. They are workers non-stop. They sleep beside their machines. That's why they are successful in life."
Ford went on: "I'm telling you, Oriental people, they're slowly taking over.… They're hard, hard workers."
Ford has apologized for his choice of words, but Chan, who obtained his PhD from York University in Toronto, said the term is really an ethnic slur that should be laid to rest.
Chan said he understands the term "Oriental" continues to be part of some people's lexicon but the acceptable, and more accurate, term to use these days is "Asian."
Oriental refers to the Orient, which has been used to refer to the Far East. Historically, the Orient was a term used in Western culture to refer to Asia.
Chan said, at the very least, Ford has raised an important issue by using the term. "I love a guy like that because he brings out what we need to think about," he said.
But he said using such a term undermines all the talk in Toronto about diversity. "When you start demeaning people, the whole diversity and the whole attitude of equity and fairness and social justice is just not there," he said.
Chan first raised the issue of the inappropriate use of the word "Oriental" in a paper he wrote in 1978, while a student at York University.
Chan, currently on sabbatical from his job at the University of Washington, is a filmmaker and author. He works at the Canadian Studies Centre of the university's Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies.”
It is a comedy, is it not, when egghead profs raise red flags about “ethnic slurs”, claiming "When you start demeaning people, the whole diversity and the whole attitude of equity and fairness and social justice is just not there." Come on.
So where’s the CBC story condemning Peters for his "ethnic slur"?
Where’s the “social justice” and “fairness” and “equity” when the host of a national awards show blithely 'demeans' the “brown bastards” in his audience?? Shit - that's funny!
Where’s Professor Chan and his pontifications about the ‘undermining of diversity’??
Talk about a double standard: If Ford had said what Peters had - in no matter what venue, a comedy club, or at Toronto City Hall (and it’s often hard to tell the difference between the two – no not between Ford and Peters; City Hall and a comedy club) - the politically-correct hypocrite nut-jobs would go ballistic.
Yes, apparently it’s only acceptable to demean your own kind. (oops – already I may have just insulted some Liberal or NDP brainwashed wackjob by writing that…oops…now the wackjobs are insulted…)
Maybe if Peters had referred to white bastards (or yellow or black? Why stop at colour? Their religions are a laugh, too, no??) , one or two smug Ford-bashers might then think to themselves…whaaa….?! Hey, wait a minute….!
Shouldn’t Toronto mayor/comedian David Miller and his socialist lapdogs on council be protecting the morality and the social equity of Torontonians who were watching the Junos on their TV’s in Toronto? Why does David Miller do nothing about the “brown bastards” racism being broadcast on TV’s in his city’s supposedly-clean streets, in his supposedly socially equitable neighbourhoods?! OMG!!! The purveyors of high-minded morality who deride Ford, must think the use of “brown bastards”, on the other hand, is cool, and acceptable!
Why, it’s a joke, fool…don’t you get it? Self-deprecating, and all that...
Hey, now, don’t go running off to the Human Rights Tribunal….
Here’s what Amy Ko wrote on Mar.14, 2008 as a response to the above CBC story:
“I am an Oriental, and I don't find the term "Oriental" offensive. Whether they work like dogs is another matter, but what's the big deal about the word Oriental? I did a google search on the word "Oriental." There are 71,300,000 results. Among them include Oriental hotels, Oriental babies, Oriental science, Oriental institute, Oriental theatre, Oriental bank, Oriental cat etc. Oriental seems like an elegant word to me. Let's look at the word Asian. Asians should include east Asians, south-east Asians, middle-east Asians, Eurasians etc They are all Asians, from Asia. In fact, being someone from Hong Kong, I'd rather be called an Oriental than a Chinese, because, hey, if I liked being a Chinese so much, I wouldn't come to Canada in the first place. So, Anthony Chan, I think you're wrong on this issue. I like being called an Oriental. A long-time immigrant from Hong Kong.”
Man, if only Rob was brown skinned, and Russell wasn’t. Would the messenger change the message?
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