Before we launch into today’s brilliant — yet, terrifying — podcast, I want to take a moment to celebrate the one-year anniversary of Small Change!
February 27, 2023 I published my first newsletter that focused on the groundbreaking work of non-State torture advocates and authors, Jeanne Sarson and Linda MacDonald called, 'It's hard to get an article about non-State torture published.'
Twelve short months later, Small Change has grown to include podcasts and the number of truly inspiring people requesting interviews is nothing short of amazing.
I want to thank everyone who has a subscription to Small Change, but especially those individuals and organizations who have let me know that they value my investigative journalism and hard work by taking out paid subscriptions.
There is no end to the issues that deserve coverage in the media. Unfortunately, mainstream media is owned by the one per cent and they dictate what makes it onto the pages and into the podcasts.
So, once again thank you for supporting independent media that clears up the disinformation and skewed facts — because with your help, a little Nicoll can make a lot of change.
If you don’t know what the Minden Paper is then you need to hear today’s Small Change interview with Jeff Nicholls and Luis Marco Siega.
Nicholls and Siega are members of an evidence-based advocacy group that is seeking to understand the decision-making process before, during and after the permanent closure of Minden’s emergency room.
As of June 1, 2023, all emergency and in-patient services were moved from Minden Hospital to Haliburton Hospital by the Ford government. This was executed without community consultations and with a mere six weeks notice.
The lack of transparency that shrouded the entire process is very concerning especially when you take into account that no consideration was given to tying financial decisions to patient care outcomes.
Minden Paper volunteers were able to determine that the staffing shortage was not the reason Minden’s emergency room was permanently closed as stated by Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) and Minister of Health Sylvia Jones. Rather, it was the use of private nursing agencies that drove up expenditures creating a massive deficit.
HHHS posted a surplus of $71,010 for fiscal year (FY) 2022. They posted $200k deficit as at June of FY 2023 which jumped to a whopping $4.1M by year end.
We also discussed the region of Halton which serves Oakville, Burlington, Milton and Georgetown. The combined deficit for Halton Healthcare in FY 2023 was $8,196,000. Quite frankly, any deficit would have surprised Halton residents because the affluent community regularly fundraises for all of it’s hospitals.
In fact, residents purchased a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine for Oakville Trafalgar Memorial Hospital (OTMH) that is known to sit unused due to a lack of staff.
In 2022, I reported that according to Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) records for 2021, a total of 10,000 private agency nursing hours were billed at OTMH.
At that time, private nurses were paid two to two and a half times the rate of public nurses. Some agencies also paid private nurses a bonus for working an overnight shift. Then, there’s the agency’s fee on top of those costs.
It’s important to note, that often private nurses are unable to do the entire job they are hired for because there’s no orientation, no training, little to no supervision and a lack of continuity.
In 2022, OTMH had not experienced an emergency room or department closure. Instead, they had ‘silent closures.’ That’s when an emergency room is running with less staff than normal while serving the same number of patients requiring care. In order to cope, certain parts of the emergency department get closed down.
It’s also essential to point out that every time a patient is added onto a nurse’s workload, the risk of an adverse effect, or even death, goes up by seven per cent.
The Minden Paper’s experienced team includes those with lived experience in healthcare, board governance, digital strategy, operations management, financial analysis, nonprofit management and community advocacy. What these experts uncovered forced them to take a closer look at hospitals across Ontario. Their findings deserve to be shared with, and scrutinized by, all Ontarians.
The Minden Paper’s audit of Ontario Hospital’s financial statements for FY 2022 and FY 2023 uncovered a 209 per cent increase in the number of hospitals in deficit. In FY 2022, 33 hospitals were in deficit. By FY 2023, an astounding 102 hospitals were in deficit.
Here’s the listing of deficits by hospital uncovered by the Minden Paper team.
The team also determined that amongst the 102 hospitals in deficit, there was a 992 per cent increase in average deficit from -$545,000 to -$5.9 million. There was also a 3,300 per cent increase in total deficit from -$17.9 million to -$610 million.
McKenzie Health, which serves over half a million people living in York Region, appears to be the gold standard that other healthcare providers should be emulating. Instead of a deficit, McKenzie Health had a surplus of $93 million for the FY 2023.
According to Minden Paper findings, financial instability of Ontario’s hospitals reveals wide-ranging issues within the healthcare funding framework and underscores the urgent need to reassess funding strategies and allocation, particularly in the face of rising operational costs in conjunction with inconsistencies in provincial funding.
Their data highlights significant flaws on multiple levels. In other words, the public healthcare crisis is attributable to mismanagement by healthcare boards in combination with inadequate funding and a dearth of policy support from the Ministry of Health under the reckless, inattentive and derelict command of Conservative MPP Sylvia Jones.
Ontario’s current unsustainable healthcare system is the direct result of chronic under funding and poor strategic planning on the part of the Ford government. But that was Ford’s plan all along.
Hospital boards and the Ministry of Health must share responsibility for the current untenable situation that necessitates immediate, collaborative action to address both the funding gaps and operational inefficiencies in order to salvage Ontario’s public healthcare system.
I encourage you to listen to my conversation with Nicholls and Siega to really comprehend the dire financial situation Ontario’s hospitals are in due to a trifecta of chronic under funding; removal of one-time funding; and the effects of Bill 124.
Here are links to important documents mentioned in the podcast:
For a robust understanding of the deficits Ontario hospitals are facing read the February 24, 2024 Minden Paper post.
Review Bill 46, the Excellent Care for All Act (2010) that among other things:
Recognizes that a high-quality health care system is one that is accessible, appropriate, effective, efficient, equitable, integrated, patient centred, population health focussed, and safe; is committed to ensuring that health care organizations are responsive and accountable to the public, and focused on creating a positive patient experience and delivering high quality health care.
Believes that quality is the goal of everyone involved in delivering health care in Ontario, and that ultimately, each health care organization should hold its executive team accountable for its achievement.
Believes that everyone involved in delivering health care in Ontario has a role to play in ensuring the quality of the system.
Take a look at the Ontario Not-for-profit Corporations Act (ONCA) that went into effect on October 19, 2021.
That means, not-for-profit corporations previously governed under the Corporations Act have three years from the date ONCA went into force to review and amend their documents to conform with the new act.
#TheMindenPaper #FordIsKillingUs #LTCReformNow #FundONHealthCare #StopPrivatizingHealthCareFord
Music: Real Estate by UNIVERSFIELD is licensed under a Attribution 4.0 International License. freemusicarchive.org.
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The Minden Paper lays bare the financial chaos of Ontario's hospitals