Sylvia Jones warns ‘status quo’ in Ontario health care is not sustainable

Health Minister Sylvia Jones is signalling the prescription for what ails Ontario’s overburdened health-care system is to be more “innovative.”

Thestar.com
Aug. 18, 2022
Robert Benzie

Health Minister Sylvia Jones’s prescription for what ails Ontario’s overburdened health-care system includes moving elderly hospital patients to nursing homes in other locales.

In a speech to Association of Municipalities of Ontario delegates in Ottawa -- using language critics warn is “code” for greater private-sector delivery of services -- Jones said changes loom.

“After decades of inaction, we can no longer stand by and support a status quo that cannot respond to the current challenges the sector is facing,” the minister said Wednesday.

Jones and Long-Term Care Minister Paul Calandra will outline a spate of “operational” reforms Thursday morning at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto.

One move, first reported by CityNews and confirmed by the Star, is to make permanent a pandemic emergency measure that allows the moving of patients in hospitals awaiting a long-term care bed to nursing homes in other communities.

Progressive Conservative sources said the decision to transport elderly people to an available bed elsewhere would be left up to doctors and could free up some 250 hospital beds by year’s end.

It’s estimated there are nearly 2,000 so-called “bed blockers” in Ontario hospitals awaiting transfer to long-term care homes.

“Guided by the best evidence and the successes of other jurisdictions, the government will take bold action that prioritizes patients and their health above all else,” Jones said in Ottawa.

Her comments echo Premier Doug Ford’s assertion Friday that “something has to give” in a health-care system that has been stretched thin during a two-and-a-half year COVID-19 pandemic that led to a summer of staff shortages and hospital emergency-room closures.

But the opposition New Democrats charge that Jones is telegraphing further private involvement in health-care service delivery.

“It’s just a code word for privatization,” said interim NDP Leader Peter Tabuns.

“I’ve been listening to the premier, it’s very clear, they’re doubling down on privatization,” Tabuns said Wednesday at Queen’s Park.

“They’re attacking the public system. As you’ve been hearing the premier say, ‘the status quo doesn’t work,’ ” he said.

“If you starve the public system long enough, you’re going to have problems and we have problems. They’re just opening the door to ensuring that their investors are going to make a fortune on private health care. That’s what’s going on.”

Jones’ speech to municipal delegates did not once mention privatization.

“Our goals are clear: provide the best care possible to patients and residents while ensuring the resources and supports are in place to keep our province and economy open,” the minister said.

“While we’ll have more details later this week, I want to talk to you about one area in this plan that I know will be of particular interest to municipalities,” she said, announcing an expansion of emergency “911 models of care” to more towns and cities.

That’s to enable paramedics to treat patients on-site instead of having to rush them to hospital.

“And at the same time, we are expanding when paramedics can safely and effectively provide treatment, starting with minor acute illnesses and injuries such as falls, and managed chronic conditions such as diabetes and epilepsy,” she said.

“It’s clear that the 911 models of care program are working, and I’ve heard loud and clear from you that these kinds of innovative solutions are what your communities want.”

Last week, Ford pointed to specialized private facilities like the Shouldice Hernia Hospital in Markham as examples of how other services could be better performed.

“If there is a way of delivering better publicly funded health care, we’re going to do it. Everything’s on the table -- and I’m not going to do anything without consulting with the experts out there,” he said.

NDP MPP France Gelinas (Nickel Belt), who expressed alarm at Ford citing Shouldice -- an anomaly that is grandfathered -- was also concerned about plans to move patients to nursing homes in different parts of the province.

“This is not how we treat people in Ontario,” Gelinas said Wednesday night.

“I am worried for the families who will be separated from a loved one. I am worried for the seniors who will be sent far from their spouse, their essential caregivers, their grandchildren, and everything that’s familiar to them,” she said.

About 40 per cent of Ontario’s health-care system is already effectively privately delivered -- including services provided by doctors, laboratories and walk-in clinics.

But under the federal Canada Health Act, provinces and territories must abide by certain conditions in order to receive billions in health-care transfer payments from Ottawa.

“The aim of the (act) is to ensure that all eligible residents of Canada have reasonable access to insured health services on a prepaid basis, without direct charges at the point of service for such services,” the federal government says.