CUPE Not "Horsing Around" To Ontario Government's Privatized Healthcare Plan

Serving as a metaphor in response to the Ontario Premier’s plan to bring privatized healthcare to the province, members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have brought a 15-foot trojan horse to a rally at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) on Thursday morning.

The 15-foot trojan horse is making 61 stops along the province. It made a visit at the Ross Memorial Hospital in Lindsay after it made a stop at the PRHC. Photo by David Tuan Bui.

The horse is synonymous with Greek mythology. During the Trojan War, the Greeks used a wooden horse disguised as a gift to gain access to the city of Troy and secure a victory. Soldiers were hiding inside the wooden horse as an ambush.

In May of last year, Doug Ford, Ontario Premier, had Bill 60 (Your Health Act) pass legislation to allow private clinics to conduct more OHIP-covered surgeries.

CUPE believes this bill is a trojan horse and disrupts and negatively affects the public healthcare system rather than both being able to co-exist.

“It's actually the opposite,” said Sharon Richer, CUPE secretary-treasurer of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions. “What it is going to do, (is) create longer wait times, create staffing issues and more hallway medicine that we're already today.”

According to CUPE, $968 million was spent on for-profit staffing agencies last year. The report continues to state that there was an increase of 212 per cent for private, for-profit clinics from 2023-24. This drains resources from the public system, contributing to staffing shortages and long wait times, says Richer.

“If you don't have the money, you're not going to be moved up into the line and the waitlists are going to grow longer here and that private clinics are only going to take healthy patients,” she said. “What's going to be left for the hospitals are people with medical issues on top already with the surgery that they're having so it's going to create longer wait times.”

While CUPE says it has not affected the PRHC for now, they have already seen its effects elsewhere in Ontario.

“In Don Mills, people are going to have their cataracts done at a private clinic and they're charging OHIP, $1,269 where if they have it done in a public hospital, it costs OHIP $508,” explained Richer. “This is almost two-and-a-half times more. This is our public taxes paying for these private clinics to make a profit and this is why we're sounding an alarm.”

CUPE’s solution to the problem is funding public health care. According to their report, Ontario has the fewest beds per 1,000 people across the country and the lowest staffing levels. They want increased healthcare funding in the public sector and to stop privatization.

CUPE hopes the trojan horse sends a message to Doug Ford and the Conservative government about reconsidering privatized healthcare.

“We're going across the province, we have 61 stops in various communities and we're talking to people,” concluded Richer. “There will be an election coming up in the spring and people need to make sure healthcare is the number one topic in this election and they need to force Doug Ford to repeal the Bill. If we get a new government, the government needs to repeal the privatization for the clinics, Bill 60.”

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Peterborough Requires More Hospital Beds and Staff To Meet Healthcare Demand Over Four Years Says CUPE

The Canadian Union of Public Employees’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions has released a report addressing healthcare needs in Peterborough over the next four years in a presentation at the Peterborough Public Library on Wednesday morning.

Doug Allan, CUPE research officer (left) and Michael Hurley, OCHU/Cupe president (right) providing a presentation of their presentation; ‘The Hospital Crisis: No Capacity, No Plan, No End.’ CUPE represents 40,000 hospital workers across the province. Photo by David Tuan bui.

Their presentation, ‘The Hospital Crisis: No Capacity, No Plan, No End’ highlights the crisis in the Ontario hospital sector (including Peterborough) over the next four years. CUPE claims it will only worsen unless the provincial government makes significant investments to improve staffing levels and capacity as a result of their research according to Michael Hurley, OCHU/Cupe president.

“The hospital has identified the province with a critical lack of staffing,” he said. “It's a significant number of positions that need to be filled in the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.”

CUPE estimates that staffing levels and bed capacity must improve by 22 per cent, averaging at least over five per cent a year. This results in Peterborough needing 493 additional staff and 107 more beds.

They continue to criticize Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s current trajectory and plans, claiming those needs will grow by less than three per cent over the same duration.

“We are in a deep crisis with no signs of improvement as we continue to fail patients and workers alike,” said Hurley. “You've got services being reduced because of staff shortages, you've got patients being treated on stretchers because of lack of capacity, you've got people waiting for services for long periods or being turned away from services, you’ve got people being discharged prematurely. It’s unacceptable.”

CUPE continued to want the provincial government to repeal Bill 124 to properly pay healthcare workers their fair share and remove the cap on their wage increases.

“With inflation, because it drives up revenue at a comparable rate — that's inflation — the government has benefitted from very significant revenue increases and of course they've underspent their budgets on healthcare,” explained Doug Allan, CUPE research officer. “Hospital funding right now is about $25 billion across the province so five per cent of that per year would be $1.25 billion.”

Citing Stats Canada’s data, OCHU/CUPE says hospital staffing levels have only increased by 0.4 per cent annually since 2020 but patient needs necessitate a corresponding increase of 5.2 per cent annually.

CUPE continues to claim that healthcare staff have been burdened with heavy workloads, which combined with wage suppression, led to high turnover rates. The cite that vacancy rates in the first quarter of 2023 increasing by about 300 per cent since 2015. 

“The ongoing retention and recruitment challenges will only worsen if the government fails to address working conditions and compensation,” said Hurley. “Staff-to-patient ratios are extremely poor and getting worse. There are so many patients as demand for hospital care continues to grow, and the workloads continue to intensify. The conditions are so unsatisfactory that staff feel like they are failing patients and they just can't do it anymore.”

The report continues to mention that Ontario has 38 per cent less inpatient staffing in hospitals compared to the Canadian average. It says there would be 33,778 more full-time staff including inpatient workers and support staff if the province maintained pace with the others.

More full-time work, improvement in real wages and banning the use of agency staff were CUPe’s recommendations to help remedy the situation.

Since 2022, there have been more than 145 emergency room closures due to staffing shortages in 2023 according to CUPE.

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Ontario Government to Add Hospital Beds and Build Up Health Workforce

The Ontario government is planning to add hospital beds and build up the province’s health care workforce in a live-streamed announcement on Tuesday afternoon.

Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health (pictured) was joined by Matthew Anderson, CEO of Ontario Health on the announcement. Screenshot.

The decision was made to ensure patients can continue to access the health care they need when they need it according to Ontario Government officials.

The province is collaborating with Ontario Health (OH) and the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) on initiatives to deploy internationally educated nurses to hospitals and other health care settings in need of staffing support to work as part of a team under the supervision of a regulated health care provider, such as a registered nurse or doctor.

More than 1,200 internationally educated CNO applicants have expressed interest in participating in these initiatives so far and matching with healthcare providers is expected to begin later this week, with onboarding new staff in the weeks ahead.

“Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Ontario’s hospitals and health care providers have worked tirelessly to protect the health and safety of patients,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Our government has continued to make critical investments in our hospital and health workforce to ensure no resource goes untapped so that our hospitals have the staffing and resources they need to care for patients during this challenging time.”

Since March 2020, the government has launched emergency programs that have already added over 6,700 health care professionals to the system including acute care settings, long-term care homes and home and community care settings that help to preserve hospital capacity according to the release.

These programs will also provide hospitals with the capacity to add another 6,000 additional providers to high-need hospitals to support staffing pressures due to COVID-19 by Mar. 31 including the deployment of nursing students and other health care providers-in-training as stated by the Ontario Governemnt.

Since the start of the pandemic, $5.1 billion have been invested to add 3,100 beds across the province for a total of approximately 17,000 medical and surgical beds.

Through additional investments, Ontario has a total of 2,436 adult and pediatric ICU beds. Approximately 600 ICU beds remain available today, with the ability to add nearly 500 additional beds if required.

"More than ever, this wave of the pandemic will require us to work as a system, ensuring we utilize all of our provincial resources to meet the needs of patients," said Matthew Anderson, President & CEO of Ontario Health. "We are working closely with hospital and health care partners to maintain and protect capacity across the system."

These ongoing initiatives build on the government’s commitment as part of the 2021 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Build Ontario to invest $342 million over the next five years through immediate and longer-term recruitment initiatives which would add over 13,000 workers to Ontario’s health care system.

This includes over 5,000 new and upskilled registered nurses and registered practical nurses as well as 8,000 personal support workers.

“The pandemic has highlighted the need for more staff on the front lines of our health care system,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance. “Our government committed to spare no expense in the fight against the pandemic to protect people’s health and the economy, which is why investing in the front lines of our health care system was one of the key pillars of our plan to Build Ontario.”

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Record Influenza Vaccination Rates of Healthcare Workers Resulted in Zero Lab-Confirmed Cases Last Year

Peterborough Public Health is hoping last year’s strong flu shot uptake among local healthcare workers portends similar vaccination rates this year for even better community protection.

Stock photo.

“Last year’s impressive influenza vaccination rates show that local healthcare workers understand that the vaccine is essential to protecting their patients and the community,” said Patti Fitzgerald, Manager of Infectious Disease Programs. “We appreciate their leadership as the flu vaccine starts rolling out across our region, and hope to see strong vaccination rates again this year for everyone’s benefit.”

Each year Peterborough Public Health produces a report on healthcare worker flu immunization rates focusing on those who work in long-term care facilities (LTCF), retirement residences, and at Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC).

For the 2020-2021 influenza season, the median vaccination rate of all LTCFs was 87.2%, up 5.1% from the previous year. Influenza vaccination rates among PRHC staff also increased from last year, up 3.4% to 84.5%.

A total of zero lab-confirmed influenza cases were reported for the 2020-2021 surveillance season. Zero influenza outbreaks were reported in LTCFs, retirement residences, and the local hospital for the same period, compared to three outbreaks in these settings the previous influenza season.

This year’s flu vaccine has already been made available to healthcare workers and is currently publicly available through pharmacies and health care providers.

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Powerful Pictures Of Frontline Healthcare Workers At PRHC By A Mother Whose Daughter Was Treated There For Cancer

Ennismore’s Mary Zita Payne has such enormous gratitude for this community and particular the frontline workers at PRHC.

See, her daughter Eliza, at age 3, was diagnosed with cancer. Young Eliza went through two and a half years of treatment for leukaemia, much of it at PRHC. “We were blessed her treatment plan had amazing success rates, and little likelihood of relapse,” Mary tells PTBOCanada. “She came out of on top, heathlier and happier then ever."

“Throughout those days as dark and sometimes lonely as they could feel, there was so much love, so many impactful moments from humans and our community that shined so much beauty in our lives,” Mary adds. “Our community rallied around us in an incredibly fierce way—they had a set up a GoFundMe page (which went beyond our wildest dreams), they sent cards and gifts, they donated blood, they sent beautiful messages.”

But the real heroes were the doctors and nurses who were there for Eliza and her family day in and day out. And for that, Mary is eternally grateful. During Eliza’s treatment there, Mary started really understanding the power of an image, of capturing moments (like the photos above).

“Photographing these nurses and community supporters was a way to thank them for the support—a way to make sense of it all and share with Eliza when she got older. My camera became a means of sharing my gratitude to my loved ones and the universe.”

Fast forward to today: To the crisis. To the pandemic. To our heroes, the healthcare workers at PRHC who are fighting a war against a virus, saving many lives, and in doing so putting themselves right in harm’s way on the battlefield. And back to Mary, who has turned her camera on them once again to give them a voice so to speak—to thank them for their awesome support, and for taking such amazing care of all of us. 

“I have been taking photos of them at the ‘parades’ honouring them, when I visit my grandma’s nursing homes and when I head into town for some essentials,” says Mary, who has been doing so while abiding by the physical distancing guidelines set forth, keeping well back.

“I see our nurses, many of whom we came to call our family and beloved friends, are being thrown into a war against a horrible disease, a disease that puts them at risk as well as their loved ones,” Mary tells PTBOCanada.

“It only seemed fitting to pull my camera out again and find a way to thank them,” Mary says of documenting this on her blog.

“By directing the camera right onto them during this crisis, I wanted to make sure they know how incredibly beautiful and strong they are for doing so. I wanted to help remind them on their bad days that their communities have so much love, respect and appreciation.”

Mary’s hope in documenting the frontline heroes at PHRC?

“That it inspires our community to keep the focus on keeping those in the ‘trenches’ safe, and how much we have to be grateful for. Grateful for a healthcare system and people within in it that will do everything they can to keep us safe and healthy.”

It only seems fitting somehow that we should finish this post here, with a picture of a now healthy and happy Eliza, who just turned 7, waving to the very healthcare workers at PRHC who helped save her life.

Eliza

View more of Mary’s photos of our heroes on her blog. (PRHC is need of the following supplies if you think you can help with their PPE drive.)

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