OCHU

Overcrowded hospitals, cutbacks to cleaning linked to infection outbreaks

October 11, 2011
– Although medical experts are blaming hospital overcrowding (resulting from cuts to patient beds) for infection outbreaks – particularly outbreaks of antibiotic- resistant superbugs – the Ontario government plans to cut another 5,000 acute care beds province-wide. Currently, hospital bed occupancy is at record levels, over 97 per cent.

Studies show that healthcare-associated infections kill between 8,000 and 12,000 Canadians a year – 40 per cent of these deaths are in Ontario.

“Many of these deaths are preventable. Ontario should follow the lead of countries where hospital acquired infections have been significantly reduced by pro-active measures,” says Sharon Richer, the Vice-President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).

A mobile hospital room display will be set up for a media conference on Tuesday, October 11 at 11:00 a.m. Archdekin Recreation Centre, 292 Conestoga Drive, Brampton ON. Using the mobile exhibit hospital workers will demonstrate the effective and thorough cleaning practices required to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A mobile hospital room display will be set up for a media conference on Wednesday, October 12 at 11:00 a.m. at the Elmbank Community Centre, 10 Rampart Rd, Etobicoke ON. Using the mobile exhibit hospital workers will demonstrate the effective and thorough cleaning practices required to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A mobile hospital room display will be set up for a media conference on Thursday, October 13 at 11:00 a.m. at the Wingham Knights of Columbus Centre
99 Kerr Dr, Wingham ON. Using the mobile exhibit hospital workers will demonstrate the effective and thorough cleaning practices required to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

A mobile hospital room display will be set up for a media conference on Thursday, October 14 at 11:00 a.m. at West End Community Centre (Lions Lair Room 3) 21 Imperial Rd South, Guelph ON.Using the mobile exhibit hospital workers will demonstrate the effective and thorough cleaning practices required to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

OCHU/CUPE’s mobile hospital room tour will be visiting 15 communities across central and southern Ontario beginning October 11. OCHU/CUPE represents 35,000 hospital workers province-wide.

For more information, please contact:
Sharon Richer
Vice-President, OCHU/CUPE (705) 698-6668

Stella Yeadon
CUPE Communications (416) 559-9300

Cutting superbug infection deaths in hospitals

Studies show that hospital-acquired infections kill between 8,000 and 12,000 Canadians a year. Globally, there is a growing recognition of the relationship between the effective cleaning of hospitals and long-term care facilities and rising rates of hospital-acquired infections. Links are also being made between bed-occupancy rates, patient mobility within the hospital, shared facilities, and contracted cleaning and hospital acquired-infection rates.
To draw attention to this leading cause of preventable death, CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) has launched a 15 community tour of northern Ontario using a theatre set representing a hospital room to demonstrate the disinfection of a room that has been occupied by a patient with a superbug like C. difficile, VRE orMRSA. Fourty-two per cent of hospital-acquired infection deaths in Canada, between 3,200 and 4,800, are in Ontario.
Although medical experts are blaming hospital overcrowding (resulting from cuts to patient beds) for infection outbreaks – particularly outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant superbugs – bed cuts are continuing across Canada.
Between 1991 and 2003, a period when 16,000 hospital beds were cut in Ontario, the rate of patients contracting C. difficile increased almost fivefold. Outbreaks of other types of hospital-associated infections also rose. The Ontario government plans to cut another 5,000 acute care beds province-wide. Currently, hospital bed occupancy in Ontario is at record levels, over 97 per cent. Ontario has fewer hospital beds per 1,000 of the population than any province. Countries, like the Netherlands, with much lower occupancy rates, have correspondingly lower death rates from hospital-acquired infections.
OCHU is calling on Ontario’s health minister to bring down death rates from hospital-acquired infections by lowering hospital-occupancy rates, doing a deep clean of hospitals, and providing more resources for cleaning and infection control.
The mobile hospital room will begin touring southern Ontario communities in August.

Ontario health minister continues to ignore significant factors in superbug deaths

For Immediate Release - July 15, 2011
TORONTO, Ont - At a Queen’s Park media conference today hospital staff urged Ontario’s health minister to follow through with funding to support the recommendations made by the expert team reviewing outbreaks of C. difficile linked to the deaths of 21 patients at Niagara Health System hospitals.
The report by the Public Health Ontario Infection Control Resource Team makes dozens of recommendations and proposes increased staffing for cleaning and infection control. The reports notes the challenges faced by overcrowded hospitals and proposes limits on patients sharing rooms and transfers of patients and equipment within the hospital. The report proposes a pro-active approach.
“But the Ontario health minister continues to focus on hand washing in her public comments and the CEO of the Niagara Health System has indicated that she is not sure money will be provided by the Ministry of Health & LTC for additional cleaning,” said Michael Hurley the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) at today’s media conference.
Hospital acquired infections like MRSA, VRE and C. difficile are the fourth leading cause of death in Ontario and kill between 3,200 and 5,000 hospital patients each year. Experts have estimated that one half of these deaths are preventable. Ontario spends $1 billion each year to provide care for patients who acquire these diseases in hospital. Ontario should be investing proactively as other jurisdictions have done to achieve similar drops in infection and death rates. Scotland, for example, has hired 1,000 hospital cleaners and has driven C. difficile infection rates down by 37 per cent.
Healthcare experts make a direct connection between overcrowding and superbug outbreaks. Ontario has the fewest number of hospital beds per capita of any province and operates at 97.9 per cent capacity. In fact Ontario has the lowest number of acute hospital beds per capita of any developed economy, except for Mexico.. The British Medical Association Scientific Committee reports that as hospital bed occupancy rates increase from under 85 per cent to over 90 per cent, the risk of transmission increases by an additional 10 per cent. Ontario’s bed occupancy level is much higher than 90%.
At today’s media conference a theatre set of a hospital room was erected on the lawn of Queen’s Park to demonstrate the cleaning involved following the discharge of a patient with C. difficile. Toronto is the latest stop in a 30 community tour to raise awareness about hospital acquired infections. In 2012, OCHU is sponsoring a conference on Medical Errors and Hospital Acquired Infections.

For more information, please contact:
Michael Hurley President, OCHU/CUPE (416) 884-0770
Louis Rodrigues First VP, OCHU/CUPE (613) 531-1319
Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications (416) 559-9300

Overcrowded hospitals, inadequate resources for cleaning, kill thousands each year

Mobile hospital on provincial tour to fight
hospital-acquired infections in Windsor Monday

WINDSOR, Ont. – Although medical experts blame hospital overcrowding (resulting from cuts to patient beds) for infection outbreaks – particularly outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant superbugs – the Ontario government policies will lead to another 5,000 care bed cuts province-wide. 16,000 hospital beds have been cut in the province of Ontario since 1995. Currently, hospital bed occupancy is at record levels, over 97 per cent.

Studies show that hospital-acquired infections kill between 8,000 and 12,000 Canadians a year—between 3,200 and 4,800 are in Ontario.

“As many as half of these deaths are preventable,” says Sharon Richer, the northern Ontario vice-president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE). At Niagara Region hospitals, 16 patients have died recently from an outbreak of C. difficile. Hundreds of people from the community rallied this week to call on the Ministry of Health to act quickly to ensure there are no more deaths due to the outbreak.

To heighten awareness about the death toll from hospital-acquired infections and what could bring death rates down, Richer will join hospital staff who are members of CUPE at a media conference in Windsor, Monday, July 11—11:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon—at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 255, 5645 Wyandotte Street East.

A mobile hospital room display will be set up as part of the media conference to demonstrate the effective and thorough cleaning required to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Media conference details for Tuesday and Wednesday are as follows:

Tuesday, July 12 - 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
Farquharson Arena (‘A’ Pad)
411 Tecumseh Avenue East
London, Ontario

Wednesday, July 13 - 11:00 a.m. - 12:00 Noon
Royal Canadian Legion, Branch 418
294 Vine Street North
St. Catharines, Ontario

For more information, please contact:

Sharon Richer Northern Ontario VP, OCHU/CUPE (705) 698-6668
Louis Rodrigues First VP, OCHU/CUPE (613) 531-1319
Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications (416) 559-9300

Hospital-acquired infection tour urgesOntario health minister to bring down death rates

LINDSAY, Ont. – At a Lindsay media conference today, hospital staff urged Ontario’s health minister to bring down death rates from hospital-acquired infections by lowering hospital occupancy rates, doing a deep clean of Ontario’s hospitals and providing more resources for cleaning and infection control.

Sharon Richer, the northern Ontario president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said the suffering and deaths of thousands of Ontarians from hospital-acquired infections are so regrettable because they are preventable. To draw attention to this leading cause of preventable death, OCHU/CUPE has launched a tour of several dozen Ontario communities, using a theatre set representing a hospital room to demonstrate the disinfection of a room that has been occupied by a patient with a superbug like C. difficile, VRE or MRSA.

Studies suggest that hospital-acquired infections kill between 3,200 and 5,000 Ontarians each year. While health care leaders make a direct connection between hospital overcrowding and superbug outbreaks, the Ontario government policies will lead to another 5,000 bed cuts province-wide. Hospital bed occupancy is at a record level (over 97 per cent) and Ontario has fewer hospital beds per 1,000 of the population than any province. Countries, like the Netherlands, with much lower occupancy rates have correspondingly lower death rates from hospital-acquired infections.

Between 1991 and 2003, a period when 16,000 hospital beds were cut in Ontario, the rate of patients contracting C. difficile increased almost fivefold. Outbreaks of other types of hospital-associated infections also rose.

Recent deaths of five patients at Niagara region hospitals from a C. difficile outbreak are drawing outrage from the community because the deaths which occurred between May 12 and June 16 went unreported until a week after the last death occurred.

“Public awareness about hospital-acquired infections is increasing and that is positive,” said OCHU vice-president Louis Rodrigues. “We are hopeful that the Ontario government responds accordingly by requiring hospitals to report deaths of patients with superbug infections.”

Richer and Rodrigues called on the province “to provide resources for a deep clean of Ontario hospitals as the United Kingdom has done. Contracted-out hospital cleaning, a practice the Royal College of Nurses has said is dangerous and unsafe, should be prohibited. And, we need more resources for cleaning on an ongoing basis and for infection control.”

The OCHU mobile hospital room will be in Windsor on Monday, July 11, and was in Peterborough yesterday.

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For more information, please contact:

Sharon Richer Northern Ontario VP, OCHU/CUPE (705) 698-6668
Louis Rodrigues First VP, OCHU/CUPE (613) 531-1319
Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications (416) 559-9300

Niagara health system attacked;

Politicians join protestors in voicing frustrations as C. difficile outbreak blamed for 16 deaths
Toronto Star
Thu Jul 7 2011
Page: GT1
Section: Greater Toronto
Byline: Wendy Gillis Toronto Star
An outbreak of Clostridium difficile linked to 16 hospital deaths in the Niagara area has brought the region's health system under fire, with angry politicians and residents saying it is just the latest concern with the hospital network.
Politicians, including Niagara Falls Mayor Jim Diodati and Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, joined approximately 100 protesters in criticizing the Niagara Health System for what they called the mishandling of an outbreak of the antibiotic-resistant superbug.
Protesters held aloft signs that said "Hospitals in peril," accusing the hospital of not informing residents until June 23 about an outbreak at the Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls following four C. difficile-related deaths.
But the head of the Ontario Hospital Association blasted the unions, and the local and provincial politicians, for their participation in the protest, calling it "reprehensible" at a time when hospital staff are attempting to get the outbreak under control.
"How unhelpful can you be?
"Basically turning it into a panic situation in the community as people see their local politicians out there picketing the hospital," said OHA president and CEO Tom Closson.
Sixteen deaths linked to the superbug have been reported at hospitals in St. Catharines, Welland and Niagara Falls since late May, the most recent occurring Monday. The Niagara Health Systemhas since declared outbreaks at all three hospitals and confirmed cases in other NHS hospitals.
Protest organizer and Niagara Falls City Councillor Wayne Gates said he was appalled four deaths occurred at the local hospital before the public was notified.
"That was the breaking point," he said, adding there has been "a crisis in health care down in the Niagara region for a long, long time."
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, NHS CEO Dr. Sue Matthews addressed some of the criticisms directed at the hospital network, saying additional cleaning measures - including the use of a corrosive disinfectant - have been applied, as advised by a public health team brought in by the province.
She also addressed allegations brought forward by the Service Employees International Union, which claimed the outbreak was linked to poor infection control due to the outsourcing of cleaning staff to American contractor Aramark.
Matthews said there is only one Aramark employee, in a management position; all cleaning staff are hospital employees. Practices are regularly audited and follow provincial standards, she added.
Michael Gardam, head of infection control with Toronto's University Health Network, said while unfortunate, C. difficile outbreaks are not uncommon.
"It's present everywhere in Ontario," he said. "It's not a new thing. This is another in a long line of outbreaks."
Allison McGeer, director of infection control at Mount Sinai Hospital, agrees outbreaks are common, but said there is cause for concern in a new virulent strain of the bug detected only in the past few years. She estimates the stronger bug will kill 250 people in Ontario this year - about 10 times as many as a decade ago.
C. difficile causes diarrhea and is usually spread through contact with bodily fluids. It is one of the most common infections in hospitals, often putting the elderly and those with underlying illnesses at a higher risk.

Ministry of Health shares responsibility for Niagara Hospital outbreak

Canada Newswire
Wed Jul 6 2011, 12:01am ET
Dateline: TORONTO, July 6, 2011
TORONTO, July 6, 2011 /CNW/ - Ontario's Ministry of Health shares responsibility for the outbreak of C. Difficile at the Niagara Health System, a union representing Ontario hospital staff charged today. "An ongoing reduction in the numbers of hospital beds in Niagara and across Ontario has driven up bed occupancy and created the conditions for the transmission of hospital acquired infections," says Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE. Hospital acquired infections are the fourth leading cause of death and kill between 3,500 and 5,000 people in Ontario hospitals each year. At least one half of these deaths are preventable.
"If hospital overcrowding is combined with a systematic reduction in the numbers of hospital cleaners and a refusal to require hospitals to report deaths due to hospital acquired infections, the ideal conditions are created for the spread of superbugs. The Ministry of Health has supervised the closure of 18,500 beds over the last 20 years, with over 600 cut in just this last year. This has created a dangerously high occupancy rate of 97.9%, far beyond the levels identified by the British Medical Association as increasing hospital acquired infections. It is the Ministry of Health policies which have cut hospital cleaning budgets at a time when other jurisdictions, like the United Kingdom, were hiring cleaners and deep-cleaning all of their hospitals. And it is the Ministry of Health that has not required deaths from hospital acquired infections to be publicly reported," said Hurley.
"The Ministry of Health emphasizes hand-washing. This is critical, but it is only one in a number of critical steps that must be taken to safeguard the public. The Ministry hasn't encouraged other vital protective measures. In Niagara, as in Burlington, once the deaths pile up, the Ministry sends in more cleaners. The public should expect the proactivity from the Ministry of Health that similar ministries in other countries have exhibited" says Hurley.
The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions has waged a seven year campaign around hospital acquired infections. Next week a theatre set of a hospital room visits Toronto, Hamilton, Niagara and London as part of a 30 community tour to highlight the epidemic of hospital acquired infections. The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions is holding a conference on Medical Errors and Hospital Acquired Infections in the spring of 2012 in Toronto.

Patients hit by superbugs at PRHC

By BRENDAN WEDLEY, Examiner Staff Writer
Updated 13 hours ago
An antibiotic-resistant superbug outbreak has struck a Peterborough Regional Health Centre general medical unit that had a similar outbreak that lasted two months late last year.

A patient with methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) has died, but the death isn't necessarily connected to the infection, said Margaret Jay, infection prevention and control and environmental services manager at the hospital.

"We certainly are fully operational. Programs and services across the hospital are not affected," she said of the outbreak.

There are three confirmed cases of MRSA and six confirmed cases of vancomycin resistant enterococci (VRE) in the B3 general medical unit, the hospital announced Wednesday.

“We have made some adjustments within the restructuring that happened,” she said, referring to layoffs last year as part of the hospital’s efforts to balance its budget. “But we are ensuring with the adjustments that we made that we’re still following best practices.”

Margaret Jay, infection prevention and control and environmental services manager at PRHC

Visitors are still welcome and visiting hours are unchanged, a release from the hospital states.

Overcrowding and cuts to hospital support services such as cleaning contribute to about 4,000 deaths in Ontario and 12,000 in Canada every year from hospital-acquired infections, such as E. coli or C. difficile, said Michael Hurley, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions president.

"Many of those deaths are completely preventable," he said. "Everybody should have the expectation that hospitals should be safe places to get treated or to bring a loved one.

"We should be doing everything in our power to make those environments safe."

PRHC has a hardworking team in house working and maintenance that does an outstanding job, Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal said.

"We must be vigilant always to make sure we take advantage of hand washing stations…. All of us, when we're going into a hospital or medical centre or a long-term care home, washing of hands is absolutely critical," he said. "These bugs mutate over a period of time, become resistant to antibiotics."

Niagara residents held a rally outside the Greater Niagara General Hospital in Niagara Falls on Wednesday to criticize the health care system with C. difficile linked to the deaths of 16 patients at Niagara Health System hospitals in Welland, St. Catharines and Niagara Falls.

The provincial government isn't doing enough to deal with the problem in hospitals across Ontario, Hurley argued, pointing to the Niagara outbreaks at hospitals and outbreaks in other communities such as Guelph.

"There's been a systemic reduction of cleaning resources," he said. "Cleaning has been demonstrated to be probably the most significant thing that we can do to inhibit outbreaks or to contain outbreaks."

Hurley commented that hospitals such as PRHC have had to cut support services budgets to protect clinical services from budgetary reductions.

Other jurisdictions, such as the United Kingdom, have been much more proactive in tackling hospital-acquired infections, he said, adding that the British government started taking action after it was sued for deaths connected with hospital-acquired infections.

PRHC follows best practices for infection control and environmental cleaning, Jay said.

"We have made some adjustments within the restructuring that happened," she said, referring to layoffs last year as part of the hospital's efforts to balance its budget. "But we are ensuring with the adjustments that we made that we're still following best practices."

Jay dismissed the claim that overcrowding might play a role in the spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria at PRHC.

"We have a brand new facility that allows us to be able to isolate (patients of concern) appropriately," she explained. "We don't have an overcrowding issue in our units."

The B3 unit can accommodate as many as 32 beds; it currently has 30 patients, Jay said.

Two patients who became infected with the antibiotic-resistant bacteria died during the outbreak at PRHC in the B3 medical unit that stretched from Oct. 22 to Dec. 23.

The hospital declared a C. difficile outbreak Oct. 22, the MRSA outbreak Nov. 5 and the VRE outbreak Nov. 18 in the B3 medical unit.

The VRE and MRSA outbreaks ended on Dec. 13. The C. difficile outbreak stretched until Dec. 23.

The hospital launched a review of its infection control practices during the outbreak last year.

Another outbreak struck the hospital earlier this year.

On March 25, the hospital declared outbreaks of C. difficile and VRE in its A4 medical unit that cares for cardiac and general medical patients. There were nine cases of C. difficile and 10 cases of VRE.

Infection rates in Ontario hospitals can be found on the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care website,www.health.gov.on.ca .

PRHC's rate of C. difficile infections has been routinely above the provincial average.

Over the last 34 months, PRHC's rate of C. difficile infections was below the provincial average in seven of the months. Most recently, its rate was 0.87 compared to the provincial average of 0.4 in May; 1.17 compared to the provincial average of 0.34 in April; and 0.74 compared to the provincial average of 0.33 in March.

PRHC has been mostly below the provincial average for MRSA infection rates since September 2008, with rates fluctuating between 0.03 and zero infections per 1,000 patient days. And its VRE infection rate has remained at zero since September 2008.

Antibiotic-resistant organisms are becoming more common with much more acute patients in hospitals than in previous years, Jay said.

"They're sicker," she said. "They're more vulnerable. We're using more antibiotics."

The hospital has a program to monitor antibiotic use, but the antibiotic-resistant bacteria are becoming more prevalent in the community outside the hospital with people taking antibiotics, Jay said.

"The increased use of antibiotics causes resistance with the bacteria. These types of bacteria have learned to become resistant to antibiotics," she said. "Only take them (antibiotics) when you need them."

Infection rates not so simple The North Bay Nugget

Fri Mar 11 2011
Page: A6
Section: Editorial/Opinion
Column: Letters to the Editor

Re: CUPE launches infection fight (The Nugget, March 7).
In response to CUPE's launch of a Northern Ontario tour concerning hospital acquired infections, Nipissing MPP Monique Smith points out that hospitals are now required to report superbug infections.
Ms. Smith claims that improved tracking of infection rates has produced the lowest infection rates in years, with the rates of infection going down all the time.
If only it were so simple.
The government's own data shows that this single step has not improved the problem. For example, in the past the government has reported few cases of Vancomycin-resistant enterococcus (VRE) -- eight cases in all hospitals from October 2010 to the end of the year. But now the Ottawa Hospital reports 360 diagnosed cases at just its own facilities.
The truth is we need to take many steps to deal with the hospital acquired infections that kill between 3,200 and 5,000 patients a year in Ontario hospitals.
Two first steps: We need more resources for cleaning and infection control; and we need more hospital beds opened to reduce our dangerously high bed occupancy levels.
That would be, along with more detailed public reporting of superbug infections, a good start.
Michael Hurley, President,
OCHU Canadian Union of Public Employees

© 2011 Osprey Media Group Inc. All rights reserved.

The North Bay Nugget: CUPE launches infection fight

HEALTH: Ministry urged to increase funding to fight superbugs The North Bay Nugget
Mon Mar 7 2011
Byline: PJ WILSON THE NUGGET

Between 3,000 and 5,000 Ontarians die each year from infectious diseases picked up in hospitals.
Those deaths are totally preventable," Michael Hurley, president of the Ontar io Council of Hospital Unions of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said Friday in North Bay.
Hurley was in the city to kick off a Northern Ontario campaign to try to convince the provincial government, through the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care, to invest more money into fighting the growth of superbugs.
Because antibiotics are over-prescr ibed, you are seeing more and more drug-resistant infections," he said, and that problem is exacerbated by chronic overcrowding at provincial hospitals.
Ontario hospitals average a 97% occupancy rate," making it easier for the superbugs to be passed between patients.
The so-called superbugs are bacter ia that have become resistant to common antibiotics. They include Va ncomycin Resistant Enterococci (VRE), Clostridium difficile (C . diff or C . difficile) and Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA).
The ministry has made reporting of infections by hospitals mandatory, with rates of infection available for public viewing on its website. As of Friday, the North Bay and District Hospital was still divided between the McLaren and Scollard sites for reporting on the site.
The good news for this area is that the infection rate per 1,000 patient days and the case count were both low, with 0.31 cases per 1,000 patient days, and fewer than five cases of C. diff at the Scollard site and no cases at the McLaren site.
There were no cases of VRE or MRSA at either site between Jan. 1 and 31 this year.
Hurley pointed to successful efforts in Great Britain and the Netherlands, massive efforts which have resulted in lower infection and death rates.
But instead of targeting this issue, he said, the province, which has closed an estimated 16,000 hospital beds over the last 15 years, is planning to close another 5,000 beds.
We already have the fewest number of beds" per thousand population in Canada, he said, and this move will only make it worse.
As we cut beds, more and more people will contract these diseases," he said.
Steven Fournier, a cleaner at the hospital for the last 21 years, said it is not unusual to see five or six isolation carts" and do not enter signs around the facility.
Cheri Rogers, a nurse in North Bay, said the situation is such that if you're admitted to hospital, you are concerned.
When VRE ( Vancomycin Resistant Enterococci) first came out, there was panic. It changed the way we do things," Fournier said.
But hand-washing and regular cleaning will only go so far, they said, as long as overcrowding continues.
Hurley said he understands the cost aspect involved in medical care, and that the province only has so much money. But he also said he expects that, someday, someone will launch a class-action lawsuit over superbug deaths, and the cost will be much more significant.
It's not like this is unknown to the ministry," he said.
Nipissing MPP Monique Smith admitted there is still work to be done" that could cut infection rates further, but pointed out a number of changes that have taken place over the last few years to try to combat infections.
Smith said hospitals are now required to report C. diff infections, as well as other cases of superbug infection.
She said improved tracking of infection rates has produced the lowest infection rates in years, with the rates of infection going down" all the time.
CUPE will be visiting 15 communities across Northern Ontario beginning in May. The stop in North Bay was to kick off this year's campaign.
Last year, the union visited communities and hospitals in southern Ontario as part of the campaign.

For release: March 4, 2011

Northern Ontario hospital-acquired infection tour launches NORTH BAY, Ont. – At a North Bay media conference today, hospital staff urged Ontario’s health minister to bring down death rates from hospital-acquired infections by lowering hospital occupancy rates, doing a deep clean of Ontario’s hospitals and providing more resources for cleaning and infection control.

Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), said the suffering and deaths of thousands of Ontarians from hospital-acquired infections are so regrettable because they are preventable. To draw attention to this leading cause of preventable death, CUPE is launching a 15 community tour of northern Ontario, using a theatre set representing a hospital room to demonstrate the disinfection of a room that has been occupied by a patient with a superbug like C. Difficile, VRE or MRSA.

Studies suggest that hospital-acquired infections kill between 3,200 and 5,000 Ontarians each year. While health care leaders make a direct connection between hospital overcrowding to superbug outbreaks, the Ontario government plans to cut another 5,000 acute care beds province-wide. Hospital bed occupancy is at a record level (over 97 per cent) and Ontario has fewer hospital beds per 1,000 of the population than any province. Countries, like the Netherlands, with much lower occupancy rates have correspondingly lower death rates from hospital-acquired infections.

Between 1991 and 2003, a period when 16,000 hospital beds were cut in Ontario, the rate of patients contracting C. Difficile increased almost fivefold. Outbreaks of other types of hospital-associated infections also rose.

“By visiting North Bay, Timmins, Chapleau, Hearst, Little Current, Hornepayne, Matheson, Cochrane, New Liskeard, Geraldton, Sault Ste. Marie, Red Lake, Sioux Lookout, Fort Frances and Kenora, we hope to significantly raise public awareness this spring,” Hurley said. “The Ontario government needs to require hospitals to report their death rates from hospital-acquired infections, as other jurisdictions do. The province needs to provide resources for a deep clean of our hospitals, as the United Kingdom has done. Contracted-out hospital cleaning, a practice the Royal College of Nurses has said is dangerous and unsafe, should be prohibited. And we need more resources for cleaning on an ongoing basis and for infection control.”

For more information, please contact:

Michael Hurley President, OCHU/CUPE (416) 884-0770
Stella Yeadon CUPE Communications (416) 559-9300