March 12, 2007
Muskoka residents challenge CEO over
proposed cuts
to
lab services
BRACEBRIDGE - Muskoka
Algonquin Healthcare CEO Barry Lockhart told a
packed March 12 Bracebridge town hall meeting that
no decisions have been made on the future of lab
services at the hospital.
Lockhart has been under fire from the community over
recent weeks following the release of a third party
lab review. The hospital’s initial response to the
review indicated a willingness to send more lab
services to Barrie and, if more money is not
forthcoming, to end community-based testing at the
hospital. Lab worked ordered by community-based
doctors would have to travel instead to a private
facility in Brampton.
More than 150 community members questioned Lockhart
and Local MPP Norm Miller on the potential loss of
services.
Lockhart said that if the hospital was able to
recruit the two pathologists it needed, that testing
already sent to Sudbury and Barrie could be returned
in-house. However, the key issue was one of money:
the hospital claims the partnership to do
community-based lab services was costing MAHC
$150,000/year out of its global budget. He said
Gamma Dynacare was also presently losing money on
the arrangement.
While exporting lab specimens to Brampton may save
MAHC a small amount of money, Lockhart was unaware
of whether the move would end up costing taxpayers
more.
Patty Rout, Chair of the OPSEU Healthcare Divisional
Council, said that shipping lab specimens out of the
region for testing was more costly and more likely
to result in damaged or lost specimens. Rout pointed
to several incident reports from the Privacy
Commissioner that suggested lost or damaged
specimens took up considerable public resources
ranging from police and public health officials to
the Canadian Transport Emergency Centre. Doctors
also had to notify patients, who had to return to be
retested.
“This may save the hospital money, but it costs more
to the health system,” she said.
The North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration
Network declined to attend the meeting, despite a
mandate to do public consultation. In a letter to
organizers, the LHIN claimed this issue was a
hospital one, and not LHIN-related. This is despite
a LHIN-based task force that has already submitted
an interim business plan for regional lab services
to the Ministry of Health.
The expenses of the LHIN were raised by community
members, pointing out that the LHIN spent more on
furniture last year than the total combined deficits
of the region’s hospitals.
MAHC Board Chair Ken Black argued that the CEO and
board could all be fired and the community would
still be left with the same situation. “We’re not
giving up on trying to find savings,” he said.
“We’ve made the case over and over that we are
underfunded in this region. We’ve met with the
minister, we’ve sent letters, e-mails. We may have
to take a stand.”
During the meeting CEO Lockhart was asked to
withdraw letters of discipline placed in the files
of lab workers who had worn campaign t-shirts into
the hospital. The t-shirts were printed with the
text: Our lab gets results. Don’t drive it away.
Lockhart claimed he couldn’t talk about personnel
matters in a public forum.
Lab Tech Lynn Feaver questioned the validity of the
third party review of lab services at the hospital.
Two of three members of the review were from the
Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie. The report
recommends moving more lab testing there. “No front
line lab techs were on the review,” she said. “We
have no faith in the findings.”
Lab Tech Ross Adams questioned why private labs were
allowed to bill for every test, while hospitals were
forced to fund testing from global budgets. “If
hospitals were allowed to compete with the private
labs, we could flow dollars back into hospitals.
Instead they look at labs as a financial liability.”
Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health
Coalition, said these changes were part of an
ongoing restructuring of health care by the Liberal
government. “There has been no evaluation of
restructuring. No report of what was accomplished,”
she said. “The Tory restructuring went $4.4 billion
over budget. It didn’t save money. It didn’t make
the system more efficient. It did increase
privatization.”
The meeting ended with a number of community members
agreeing to form a committee to work on the issue.
