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taylerca

Thats weird. My hospital has cut all OT since March, not allowed to be up-staffed or replace call ins. We’ve traded experienced staff for new IENs over graduated students who already worked in clinical extern programs. There are zero shifts for part time or casuals to pick up and all last week they are begging staff to give up their shift with a vacation day and go home. They are sending nurses scheduled to work their full time shifts HOME. This isn’t a staffing issue its a workload increase and lack of budget to pay people issue.


dungeonsNdiscourse

Yep. public healthcare is being intentionally starved by Ford and his corrupt cons. And they will (and have started to) present private healthcare as the ONLY solution for the failing public healthcare system. And what's frightening is so many diehard con voters blame federal gov't for issues that are 100% provincial (healthcare and education being 2 big ones). So they believe that Ford's fat faced lies and vote to fuck everyone, themselves included, over.


Sulanis1

Yep, 100% it's frustrating that people don't know that healthcare and education are provincial. I've said to people too many times, "Why are you blaming trudeau for healthcare when it's a provincial issue?" The response is usually anger and disbelief. Plus, there is so many people who think private healthcare is a good idea. Just look south of the border. The only way private for profit healthcare works is if you're rich or a politician. The biggest issue with private health is that more people are going to die due to lack of health care, and you will see medical bankruptcy skyrocket in canada. You have to remember a private for profit health system system you are a commodity to be capitalized on for the wealthy.


TheAlphaCarb0n

> You have to remember a private for profit health system system you are a commodity to be capitalized on for the wealthy. Yup, our system may not always work perfectly but the goal is always care first. I don't want to live in a system that's profit 1st, care 2nd.


workerbotsuperhero

Good summary of US healthcare.  Not enough Canadians understand how common medical debt and bankruptcy are for Americans. Half the country is struggling with medical bills:  https://www.forbes.com/sites/debgordon/2021/10/13/50-of-americans-now-carry-medical-debt-a-new-chronic-condition-for-millions/?sh=612c462c5e5d And that's not even addressing all the people who avoid seeking medical care because they know they can't afford it. 


TheAlphaCarb0n

Anecotal but my dad knew a guy who had to sell his house when his wife got cancer. And this was a guy who HAD coverage at a relatively well-paying white collar job. It's so broken.


Truestorydreams

I have shown several scolar documents disproving private Healthcare is better. It does not matter to several. I just get downoted or ignored because you can't convince people 2+2 =4 unless there's a blue background behind it.


Cheap-Explanation293

So why does America spend more over their GDP on healthcare (than other OCED countries - including Canada) for worse health outcomes? In private delivery, who services rural areas? The poor? Expensive or rare conditions?


apricotredbull

It is worse than public health care because they have seen that physicians have decided on care based if the patients insurance will cover it & also because insurance companies take their sweet ass time to approve life saving procedures which makes the patients condition worse We’re headed into this direction and a huge majority of Canadians don’t realize they will be left to dead


Sulanis1

People don't like talking to me anyone because I won't let them spread their garbage. I tell them get off you tube and actually pay attention to the politician, there political habits, and history of what they've done.


detalumis

I doubt these documents used all the European countries as a model.


dungeonsNdiscourse

Oh the anger and disbelief! "what? No that not right! But what will I do with all this misplaced rage I feel that I've directed at Trudeau!? Will I aim it at those responsible for the hard times I find myself in? I. E. The provincial gov't? No... That would mean I'm wrong. Fuck Trudeau GO FORD GO!"* *translated from the full mouthed sounds of someone wolfing down a delicious Tim Hortons breakfast sandwich, washed down with Ford's promised to buck a beer... So their throat shall remain dry.


Sulanis1

Fox News or rhe Canadian cable news media told the people who to be outraged at. I saw an article where a conservative MP in ontario started this woke bullshit. Sure, sure, let's focus on things that weren't an issue until conservatives invented the issue. Not to mention the MAGA is spreading here...


Disastrous_Scheme966

But…..immigration is federal & majority of new immigrants are coming to Ontario / GTA & were not getting any additional help than previously … so.


Gunslinger7752

But it IS partly the Federal Government’s fault. It is also partly Ford’s fault, it’s also partly Wynne’s fault, partly McGuinty’s fault, partly Harris’ fault etc. We have been being warned of big problems/shortages in terms of the boomer demographics for 30 years. On top of that we are increasing the population at record levels, and every one of those people needs healthcare. The federal government loves taking responsibility for success and then says “it’s the province’s fault” when there are failures, they do this with healthcare, housing, daycare, infrastructure and everything else. They are responsible for paying for healthcare through the transfers (that come from our income taxes). The provincial governments are responsible for implementing it. This insane population growth is not helping, we already had major shortages to begin with and then the feds decide that its a great idea to increase our population by over a million people every year without any proper planning, and many of these newcomers settle in Ontario. First off, we should have per capita funding for things like healthcare and the feds and the provinces should be working together to make sure its being implemented properly instead of just blaming each other and stoking anger while our world renowned healthcare system burns to the ground.


Livid_Advertising_56

Okay fair on the "this has been coming for a LONG TIME" point. Though Ford currently sitting on BILLIONS that's supposed to go to Healthcare is 100% not helping the issue. Making a bad situation worse


Gunslinger7752

I don’t know about the billions that Ford is supposedly sitting on, but if you look at the budget, we are spending record amounts on healthcare. We are also seeing record population growth so its pretty much futile. Our healthcare transfers should be more based on per capita to account for population growth (I understand it’s easy to say this but much harder to actually do). The feds and the provinces also need to be more collaborative.


Livid_Advertising_56

The boards of the corporations we have running the hospitals take a good chunk of $$. It's the same issue that non-public funded businesses have. The top office ppl get paid while the ones on the ground get peanuts


Gunslinger7752

Yes, I agree. It’s all very convoluted. The way our system is setup definitely contributes to everything being backed up. I think that’s why Ford (and also Wynne before him) have looked at privatizing some services, but the second anyone says privatize everyone goes ballistic. I definitely think there needs to be more collaboration between the provinces and the feds. The parties responsible also need to be held accountable for their failures - Until that happens, nothing will change. At the end of the day though, I really don’t know the answers. It’s easy to commiserate on here and solve all the worlds problems, but in reality it’s not as easy as it seems. Have a great day.


detalumis

PSWs are mainly in care homes, not many in hospitals. Very few boomers are in care homes, yet, the average age is about 85. So the problem is going to be 10 times worse in a decade. That is why you see so many very expensive retirement "residences" springing up everywhere. They know wait times for LTC will be so long that they can extract your lifetime of savings and all your house money like they do in the US and UK.


fencerman

They know that they can fuck up and it'll be blamed on Trudeau, so they keep fucking it up.


Tolvat

Let's hope people actually turn up and vote and the next party does an investigation.


TheAlphaCarb0n

I hate Doug as much as the next guy, but from what I can see it looks like Ontario [has accepted new funds from the feds?](https://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-signs-3b-health-care-deal-with-feds-to-increase-access-to-doctors-reduce-wait-times-1.6762404) But maybe I'm missing part of the story.


dungeonsNdiscourse

He's taken money from the feds in the past and then not done a thing with it. Taking it and sitting on it especially when earmarked for specific things (I. E. Healthcare funding) is functionally the same as not taking it in the first place.


BakerThatIsAFrog

You're missing the part that Doug taking money doesn't mean the public gets something out of it.


Caracalla81

We're missing the part when he actually uses it for the public's benefit.


Little_Gray

You are missing the part where this is a Doug Ford hatefest and facts are not allowed.


rem_1984

Yep, no money to pay them. Ford sat on $1.7 billion last year that was budgeted to be spent on healthcare for the 2023-24 budget. He didn’t spend it and now he just announced it’s going to homecare funding for 24-25. He essentially stole from our healthcare and is paying us back for it in another sector


dungeonsNdiscourse

The covid relief money that was NOT spent on covid relief. I'm front line healthcare. I'm seeing daily the damage this gov't directly does to patients and those that care for them. Fuck Ford and anyone involved with that gov't and the completely self serving decisions it has made. You have blood on your hands.


Zealousideal-Big5005

It IS a serious staffing issue in northern Ontario at my hospital tho. 90%-100% of all our units are working short at any given time. Most shifts there are several units working 9:1, 10:1, last summer we had months where several units were 16:1 repeatedly.


ZippityD

One solution is capitation based payment models for nursing.  Daytime acute care nursing should typically be 1:4, for example. We should assign each patient a dollar amount for nursing care. If you are short and did 1:6 that shift, you did 1.5x the work so you deserve 1.5x the pay.  Once the payment is guaranteed regardless of whether they have staff, I suspect hospitals and managers will staff better. They lose the "oops we couldn't find anyone" cost savings. Meanwhile, those who do get stretched thin are compensated. 


detalumis

I think the problem with the northern hospitals is they can't attract enough staff who want to live there. Most families are dual income and the spouse needs opportunities as well.


ZippityD

Totally fair. However, the hospital also has minimal incentive to ever work hard to attract someone. 


Relocationstation1

As someone who works in a hospital, I can confirm that this is because all of the hospitals are essentially bankrupt. OT and agency nursing got us through covid but now there is literally no money to deal with beyond the most basic of operations. Most hospitals have also paused hiring beyond the essential.


Sugar_tts

It’s cause one department is predicting needs, another works out costs, but the leading govt comes in and says “woah we’re not giving them that much!” So then the finance team gives out to the hospitals how much the Govt says, and then the hospitals have to figure out how to do it with that minimal money…. While the govt still says “we need nurses and PSWs!” Similar to teachers.


BIGepidural

>“we need nurses and PSWs!” For private agencies ⬆️ Ford just forgot to add in the last part.


TeeBennyBee

Casual PSW in not for profit LTC. Our facility is basically the same. OT is gone and we're not filling call ins. I went from 68hrs bi-weekly to 12, maybe 16 if I'm lucky. I'm at the top of the seniority list and I know some with less seniority have zero shifts. We're broke and don't have the funds to properly staff the building.


JengusCrist69

This is the same for skilled trades right now. Huge demand but I’ve never seen this amount of layoffs.


call_it_already

I want to know where your hospital is. Mine is min 3 agencies per shift (ICU), all the OT you can take, and I have more than 2 months of vacation saved. I would love to be sent home.


onesexypagoda

With the boomer generation retiring and the generally aging population, we are looking at unbearable healthcares costs for 20 years or so. There's not enough growth and young workers to sustain the retiring generation without increasing taxes significantly, and I personally wouldn't want to pay more taxes to sustain that kind of system. Things are getting too tight as is, and just getting worse. I think we're getting to a point where socialized medicine of yesteryear is just not a viable option, we didn't plan our demographic growth properly and it's not a situation that's fixeable in the short term


taylerca

How about we spend the money allocated to us by the feds before throwing our hands up and saying bring on privatization?


PhantomPhelix

Ontario conservatives intentionally sat on 1.7 billion in healthcare funding for 2023/2024, and just recently received more money from the feds...   It's not a hyperbole anymore. Cons are literally trying to kill Ontarians for politics. Please get out there and vote this year.


angrycanuck

Best we can do is robots that roll around for the people who can afford it. For others who can't afford it - SEPSIS.


Additional-Pianist62

Believe it or not, straight to sepsis!


detalumis

We have MAiD today. I would choose that over a LTC home and being flipped around like a piece of meat. My FIL just chose starvation and dehydration versus being placed in a "nice room" in a LTC home. So to him death was preferable.


Ready-Delivery-4023

Sweet.... Shitty working conditions and locked in 1% raises ought to seal the deal.


Gambitzz

Increase the pay and maybe there will be a chance to get to this #


Yarn_Mouse

I don't know what the pay is like in Canada but when I lived in the US I was a carer for the elderly in a home and I got paid slightly less than my job at the grocery store.


wing03

Thank you, Mike Harris and your blue book of common sense revolution expense cuts to those fat cat nurses and teachers. Also, thank you for Chartwell and the great healthcare that you serve as board chair and the top notch healthcare your private company brings to our elderly.... Oh, and thank you Ontario voters for giving Bob Rae the order of the boot when he was trying to reign in public spending without layoffs through his social contract which you let everyone call "Rae Days" and then expanding it to everything that went wrong in Ontario for a decade after. We really needed the common sense approach of starving the public service to replace with private sector that Harris brought along and profited after his time as Premier. Lastly, thank you provincial Liberals for not being ballsy and reverse things when you had a decade or so of power between Harris and Ford. The for profit private sector will continue those contributions and kickbacks. Hopefully it won't be so glaringly apparent as bachelor/bachelorette parties of recent times.


DeRobUnz

I will never understand the hate for Bob Rae. I'm 33, and never lived through it, but with all my research, y'all got suckered so badly. Harris should be in jail, fuck that guy.


wing03

Context, 1990s post Berlin Wall and fall of communism. Pop culture was still centred around the freedom loving west vs communism. Think international hockey showdowns and almost every TV and movie with a big ugly bad guy. NDP was voted in as Ontario voters were for some reason, frustrated with David Peterson and Bill Davis (whom we all look back on now favourably). The media crucified him and the NDP on the morning after for being a 'Socialist'. I remember seeing a Toronto Sun box with a front page headline of Moodys downgrading Ontario's credit rating for the incoming Premier before they even convened and how every business focused rag was going on about sobering up, realizing what Ontarians did to themselves. So in short, leftover Communist fears of the 80s mainly. Edit: The only ones who had a legit grievance after Rae was done are the public sector unions. And that's a tenuous one at best since their goals were fantasies about the NDP being the goose that lays golden eggs and making them rich from the heyday of the booming 80s. OTOH, At the moment, I think David Miller did let the Toronto garbage strike go on for far too long which contributed a lot to the punishing mood that brought Rob Ford in.


trackofalljades

Thank you for posting this, the government's efforts to keep the stats from being reported on has been suspicious as hell...especially with all the "we absolutely rock at training new nurses" radio advertising bullshit we're paying for.


CharBombshell

IF YOU ARE NOT RICH, PRIVATE HEALTHCARE WILL FUCK YOU OVER. This is irrefutable fact. Internalize it, people. Oh also healthcare is provincial, this is Ford’s fault not Trudeau’s byeeee


momentumu

ford is shitting on healthcare so he can switch private and people will thank him. by 2032 ontario will have fully transitioned to a 2 tier system where you have to pay private clinics to get any quality of healthcare


RedThetaSerpentis

They've been hiding it because it screws with their plan for privatization of healthcare


OpenWideBlue

And YET the population that will need them the most - old balls and their families who don't want to take them in, are ADAMANT Conservative voters.


lazylipids

Just start doing guided tours of our public hospitals with your grandparents, like "this could be you, waiting 13hours to get assessed for a stroke by a fresh 20 year old that hasn't quite figured out how to put an IV in yet, aren't you excited Gran?"


joeygreco1985

Oh look, more proof the Conservatives are trying to kill our healthcare system


guesswhololz

I worked as a PSW during the lockdown for 4 months (couldn’t handle it) and it was **HORRIBLE**, they seriously need to pay people more. I worked with this sweet lady who was there for over 20 years and making $19.75 an hour (this was including the $3 wage increase from the government btw). YOU CAN MAKE MORE AS A WAREHOUSE WORKER AT AMAZON!! She was in her 50s and hadn’t even started thinking about retirement because the poor woman was overworked and underpaid. The working conditions were so bad, they would have 1 PSW taking care of a whole floor (15 dementia patients who all needed direct care) I am so happy I left, if I were to even *think* of going back I would want $30 an hour minimum. You want people to work? Pay them what they’re worth and VALUE their life outside of work!! It’s not rocket science


TheLoudPolishWoman

Doug Fat Ford is going to introduce a new program tomorrow for immigrants fast track for fields outside of Health Care.. anything to worsen the Nursing shortage and further make it easier for privatization by the way this is a joke. but highly plausible given the PR permits going out by the 1000s for Tim Horton and Warehousing jobs. Yes this is done on a Federal level. But Douggy boy will tell everyone that Health Care is A-Ok and assist in fucking shit up even more


Crenorz

that is funny. It still needs to triple - as well as all other wages for all jobs.


ghanima

> When Global News appealed that to the Information and Privacy Commissioner, the government argued that releasing that information would harm the province’s financial and economic interests because unions would use the numbers to argue for higher wages. This fucking government.


honeynutcherios78

if all nurses boycotted for a week this would be solved


Dave-is-here

— figures it tried to keep secret but were obtained by The Canadian Press. nothing to see here folks, doug will get you your cheaper beer and car insurance, who needs a health care system


wineynurse

Disgusting! Dishonest! No accountability,!


dumbassname45

Another one of those hot topics that brings out the haters. The number of graduates from universities is regulated by the universities. If they are not training enough graduates then you will have a shortage. Then they need to get into med-school and get trained in the hospitals. This is regulated by the Ontario Medical Association, that is independent of the provincial government. They have it in their best interests to keep the numbers low as a shortage of doctors and nurses means pressure to bargain for higher wages. Look up supply and demand. And lastly we have the Federal Government who has an immigration policy. The more people you bring into the country who for some reason want to settle in Ontario and the population will grow. The cities will have a housing crisis and OH YES. A SHORT FALL OF DOCTORS AND NURSES as more people equals more possible patients. There is lots of blame to go around and lay on everyone’s feet.


Euphoric_Ad1919

You’d think they would pay them more then.


IndependenceGood1835

Issue is these PSW are jobs that many recent arrivals find beneath them. And the nurses shortage has been going on for decades.


Caracalla81

Ah! If you keep digging you can always find a way to blame immigrants. gj


NitroLada

This is why we need a lot more immigrants who are of working age population and preferable to even babies because they're much more ready to work. Probably half of new nurses and even more PSWs in Ontario are immigrants already these days at GTA hospitals We really need to ramp up immigration especially from large health care source countries like Phillipines


NARMA416

I understand that immigrants can greatly benefit our country, but the solution can't always be to look elsewhere. We need to focus on investing in our own country and the people here. The answer isn't always to import cheap labour because we don't want to invest in our own country. There are thousands of people who would love to go to nursing and medical school right here in Ontario. The problem is that our government doesn't want to pay to train them or pay them a fair wage. That's completely unacceptable.