Template submission for use by members of OPSEU
As part of a public consultation on hospital reform, the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) is holding public hearings across the province. The OHC is inviting all individuals who access or work in health care, or the organizations representing them, to attend public hearings and submit oral or written submissions on how best to reform Ontario's hospitals in the public interest.
*Please see below for the OPSEU template submission, which can be used as a guide. Please keep in mind, however, that the OHC is eager to hear about your local and personal experiences with the health care system and the challenges you and your colleagues face on the front lines when it comes to providing quality patient care. OPSEU members are the experts on the ground!
Your input will be used to help create a report, which will be released publicly this fall. The OHC also plans to use the recommendations from the hearings to measure the political parties' health care plans leading into next spring's provincial election.
Presentations are 10 minutes per person. To book a time to make an oral submission, contact the Ontario Health Coalition at 416-441-2502 or ohc@sympatico.ca. The deadline for written submissions is Friday, October 27 at 5 p.m. Written submissions can be as informal as a hand-written note. All submissions will be accepted.
Submission
A submission by [insert name, position, and if applicable, the local or sector you are representing] to the Ontario Health Coalition regarding public consultations on hospital reform
[insert date of oral presentation or written submission]
Introduction
For the better part of the last decade, the services and infrastructure that make up the foundation of our public health care system have been chipped away at during an “Age of Austerity” in Ontario. During this period, funding for public services has been cut back sharply – at the expense of regular Ontarians and to the great advantage of private for-profit health care providers. Needless to say, inequality is growing, and the working conditions of health care workers are deteriorating.
This is of particular concern to OPSEU and its members. OPSEU members not only use the public services that are funded and delivered by the province; we also deliver the services, and we are the public face of the system. At the bedside and behind the scenes, we are on the frontlines of health care.
Ontario’s hospitals
There’s no easy way to say it: Ontario’s hospitals are in crisis.
The crisis in our community hospitals has been systematically created through relentless cuts that have lasted nearly a decade. From 2008 until 2017, the province set hospital global funding increases below the rate of inflation. This meant real-dollar cuts, and from year to year, Ontarians saw services and staff cuts deepen. This was the longest period of sustained hospital cuts in Ontario’s history.
As a result, Ontario ranks at the bottom of comparable jurisdictions on hospital care levels:
- Ontario has the fewest hospital beds per capita of any Canadian province;
- Ontario ranks near the bottom for funding of our public hospitals (both by population and as a percentage of GDP).
Despite the government’s rhetoric around investing in Ontarians’ mental health, and announcements of funding “boosters” this year, the reality is that funding for mental health and addictions services has not kept pace with demand. While some funding was allocated to youth mental health services and supports for postsecondary students in 2017, mental health and addictions services across Ontario remain severely underfunded.
Take this opportunity to explain the impact of chronic underfunding and cuts, in your experience. Here are some questions to help guide your submission response:
- What cuts have you seen in your hospital: a) in the past 10 years, b) in the last 5 years, c) in the last year? Be specific.
- How have these cuts impacted staffing levels, and the services provided?
- Do you and your colleagues feel you’ve got the necessary resources to do your jobs?
- What could be improved, and how?
Hospital overcrowding
In October of 2017 it was reported that in each month from January through May, acute-care occupancy exceeded 100 per cent at six community hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA).