Re: Hospital Budget Crisis

Read articles here and here and here.

To the editor of the Sudbury Star,
(Published April 23, 2009 as Letter of the Day)

The various articles over the last couple of days regarding the $12 million dollar hospital deficit have me doubting the future of government provided universal health care in Northern Ontario, if not the whole province.

We have the sole Sudbury hospital caring for significant ALC patients, a crisis that has dragged on for years. They are also now supporting a medical school as well as an aging population in an area suffering a major doctor shortage. The operation has been streamlined in prior years to meet provincial fiscal requirements, so the deficit indicates to me that they aren't able to keep up with the demand for services. The provincial government feels that the solution is to CUT SERVICES EVEN FURTHER!.. Then they side-step responsibility by suggesting the LHIN's are the ones in control.

So where will services be cut? I have seen first hand how stretched the nursing and support staff have been under the present regime. Maybe they can reduce custodial and cleaning staff since it isn't as patient centred, but I recall that was the reported cause of C. Difficile and MRSA outbreaks in other facilities. Wherever they cut, I expect there will be both quantitative and qualitative deterioration in the health care standards. As the lunacy continues, I see our ability to handle our hospital needs in the future going down the tubes.

I hoped the last election would see a discussion of health care needs but Tory's gaffe on school funding pre-empted any meaningful dialogue. Besides, whoever gets elected, the same bureaucrats in the ministry who think this is rational still run the show. The current model is, in my opinion, doomed to eventual failure and it will not be a pretty sight.