OCHU

Local News

By CAROL MULLIGAN THE SUDBURY STAR

Physicians and surgeons working out of Sudbury Regional Hospital have called a special meeting Wednesday to ask hospital and Health ministry officials to outline their plan for how the hospital will cope when the Memorial site closes.
The meeting was called by Dr. Peter Zalan, president of the medical staff association at Sudbury Regional, after hours of meetings among doctors late last week.
The association represents 200 to 300 doctors who have hospital privileges at Sudbury Regional, and many fear the one-site hospital will suffer when the Memorial transitional care unit closes.
The hospital is caring for about 130 frail elderly patients at the former Sudbury Memorial Hospital, but the site is scheduled to close by March 31.
The North East Local Health Integration Network plans, coordinates and funds most health-care services in northeastern Ontario, and it has scheduled the Memorial for closure.
Some members of the medical staff met for five hours Friday to discuss the closure of the Memorial site and the impact it will have on acute care at the one-site hospital.
The North East LHIN agreed to fund Memorial for a year, ending March 31, 2011, until 152 long-term care beds were built in the city. Those beds are slated to open within the next three months.
But as the deadline for closure of Memorial looms, doctors and residents are growing increasingly concerned the closure could spell disaster.
Despite assurances from top health officials that the new beds and a wide range of community services will be enough to cope with the city's elderly population, developments in recent days are causing doctors and residents to question those guarantees.
More than a dozen scheduled surgeries have been cancelled at the hospital in the last two weeks because there were no beds for patients after their operations.
That is because about 75 of the 429 beds at the one-site hospital are filled with alternate level of care patients, people who do not need to be in hospital but for whom there is no other care in the community.
Those 75 patients are in addition to 130 alternate level of care patients being cared for at the Memorial site.
A citizens' lobby group called Friends of Memorial has begun sounding the alarm about the need to fund the Memorial site for another two years.
The original recommendation from the North East LHIN, and doctors at Sudbury Regional Hospital, was that the Memorial site should remain open until 2013. That would allow the 152 new long-term care beds to be built and community programs to become established to help keep the ailing elderly out of institutional care.
The 14 scheduled or elective surgeries cancelled the first two weeks of January came after surgical bookings were reduced 30 per cent to deal with the bed crisis.
Zalan and others have warned for years that the high number of ALC patients affects ever yone in the hospital system. It creates pressure on emergency because there are no beds for people who have been admitted, so they remain in emergency for hours, even days.
Last year, hundreds of surgeries were cancelled because of high ALC patient volumes.
Zalan said doctors intend to ask hospital administrators and North East LHIN officials : "What's the plan?"
Dr. Jordi Cisa, an orthopedic surgeon in Sudbury, was among the doctors who called for the special meeting this week.
If the Memorial site closes in March, Cisa said Sudbury Regional Hospital's ability to provide acute care to people will be seriously hampered.
Sudbury physician Dr. Raymond Jacques has harsh words for hospital and LHIN officials insistent upon closing the Memorial in 10 weeks.
"Closing the Memorial is insane," said Jacques, who does not work in the hospital system, but treats residents in long-term care residences in Sudbury.
"It's insane and it's not humane."
Those who insist the health-care system in Sudbury can handle the Memorial closure are "out of touch with reality," said Jacques, and are motivated by saving money and politics. "Where's the leadership?"
A former president of the Progressive Conser vative provincial riding association, Jacques said there would be more money for health care, including $13 million a year to keep the Memorial site open, if the Liberal government of Premier Dalton McGuinty were not "wasting money on their friends."
If hospital and ministry officials are convinced they have programs in place to address the ALC crisis, they should keep the Memorial open while they phase-in those programs.
"Prove to us that your programs are going to be sufficient," said Jacques.

cmulligan@thesudburystar.com

For release: 6:00 a.m. March 4, 2010

Hospital Room Highlighting Risks of Hospital Acquired Infections Kicks off Northern Ontario Tour in Sudbury

Sudbury Ontario…The union representing 1,000 nurses, cleaners, maintenance, clerical, dietary and support staff at Sudbury Regional Hospital will unveil a portable hospital room used to highlight the risks of hospital acquired infections (HAIs). Hospital acquired infections are a leading cause of death in Canada. It is estimated that some 12,000 Canadians die from HAIs, about 5,000 of those are in Ontario.

CUPE Local 1623 President Dave Shelefontiuk is hosting the northern Ontario tour. The room will go on to visit North Bay, Mattawa, Espanola, Blind River, Cochrane, Hearst, Matheson, Manitoulin Island, Little Current, Richard’s Landing, Sault Ste. Marie, Geraldton, Sioux Lookout, Red Lake, Fort Frances, Emo and Kenora, once spring arrives.

Mr. Shelefontiuk, says “ starting the tour in Sudbury is very timely because the Sudbury Regional Hospital has just announced cuts of 41,000 hours from its cleaning budget. The hospital has been struggling to get its acquired infection rates down which are above the provincial average. These cuts mean infections like C Difficile, VRE and MRSA will spread to more patients. Of equal concern is an expansion of the contracting-out of cleaning at the hospital. Contracted out cleaning has been identified as an unsafe and dangerous practice and has been banned in all hospitals in Scotland and Wales as a result.”

For information contact:
Dave Shelefontiuk, President CUPE 1623, 705-929-8457
Lise Morrisette, Secretary-Treasurer, CUPE Local 1623 566 7878
Michael Hurley, President, OCHU: 416-884-0770