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Ontario Health Coalition
Media Release - May 27, 2002
Ontario
Health Coalition Report Paints Disturbing Picture of Ontario’s
Privatized Long Term Care
Toronto –
The Ontario
Health Coalition released a report today on the privatization
of Ontario’s long term care sector. Called “Ownership
Matters” the report draws conclusions from the key trends
and outcomes of increasing private ownership and operation in Ontario’s
long term care facilities.
“For the
first time, Ontarians are paying for the construction of long term
care facilities that will be owned and operated by corporations
for profit. But is privatized long term care “faster, better,
cheaper”? The evidence is that it is not. Our research shows
that Ontario has by far the highest rate of for-profit long term
care in the country and we have among the worst levels of care”,
noted Irene Harris coalition co chair. “Our long term care
facilities are suffering under the burden of heavier care requirements
as hospital beds have closed. While staff workloads, accident and
injury are on the increase, regulations guaranteeing minimum staffing
levels have been eliminated. These trends must be changed.”
“The bottom
line? Seniors’ protections in long term care facilities are
being systematically eliminated while opportunities for profit are
being expanded”, concluded Ethel Meade, seniors’ representative
on the coalition. “Care for the fastest growing population
in the country is being turned over to a powerful for-profit nursing
and retirement home sector. As a senior, I think about this as one
who may require a bed in one of these facilities and I am deeply
disturbed by the serious deficiencies in protections for the residents
and staff.”
The full report
is available on the Ontario Health Coalition website at www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
A summary of
the key trends and findings follows.
The report was
produced by the Ontario Health Coalition for the Hospital Employee's
Union (B.C.)
For more information
contact: Natalie Mehra 416-441-2502
==========
Ownership
Matters - Lessons from Ontario’s Long Term Care Facilities
May 27, 2002
An Ipsos-Reid
poll released in April 2001 indicates that the majority of Ontarians
are worried about the affordability (60%) and the availability (57%)
of long term care. We have good reason to be worried. Statistics
Canada predicts that the number of Canadians over age 65 will double
in the next 50 years. By 2026, one in five Canadians will be a senior.
The fastest growing group in the country is aged 80 plus.
At a time when
rampant restructuring of provincial health care systems as well
as demographic data demand that we consider an expansion of the
services provided under the Canada Health Act - such as home and
long term care - the trend of Ontario’s government is to move
further and further away from the principles of the Act with respect
to services for seniors. “Public-private partnerships”
are offered as a panacea for the challenges facing the provision
of health care. But what has the involvement of the for-profit sector
meant for the delivery of long term care in Ontario? How has it
affected levels of care? What is the relationship between policy-makers
and the corporations who are competing for contracts to deliver
care to seniors?
This report
draws conclusions from the available data on the trends and outcomes
of increasing private ownership and operation of long term care
facilities. The lesson from Ontario’s long term care sector
is clear: ownership matters.
Summary
of Findings
Ontario’s
long term care facilities are now the most privatized in Canada.
For the first time ever, public money is paying for the construction
of long term care facilities that will be owned and operated by
for-profit corporations. Ontario Health Minister Tony Clement claims
privatized health care is “faster, better, cheaper”. The
evidence points to a different conclusion. While privatization in
Ontario’s long term care sector has increased, the key trends
in the sector paint a disturbing picture about care and costs:
• Ontarians
in long term care facilities receive extremely low levels of service
compared to other jurisdictions.
• Ontarians
in long term care facilities are among the oldest and the sickest
but receive the least therapy, rehabilitation and nursing care.
• Basic
accommodation costs in Ontario’s long term care facilities
are among the highest in the country.
• Staff
workloads, overtime and accident and injury rates are on the increase.
• Minimum
standards and facility inspections have decreased in the last half
decade.
• The “second
tier” - percentage of beds held for residents who pay a surcharge
- has increased while the percentage of beds held for those who
can’t afford the premium rates has decreased.
• Connections
between government and private owner/operators are unprecedented.
Faster, better,
cheaper? Private ownership and operation of facilities is not all
its cracked up to be. The evidence is that private ownership has
created a powerful and fairly consolidated private industry whose
interest in profit comes at the expense of the residents and staff
in their facilities.
The Trends
While the trend
from the mid-1960s to the mid 1990s was to increase resident protection
through improved regulation and care standards, accelerated privatization
has been accompanied by a reversal in this trend. Since 1997, regulations
ensuring minimum staffing levels in for profit facilities have been
removed. From 1996 - 1999 inspections of long term care facilities
dropped by 40%.
As in other
health care sectors, when private sector involvement has increased,
the pressure for two tier health care and new sources of revenue
for profit-seeking owner/operators has increased. In Ontario, long
term care’s “second tier” - the proportion of beds
held for residents who can afford to pay a surcharge for “preferred
accommodation” - has increased while the percentage of beds
held for those who can’t afford the premium rates has decreased.
In addition, the share of premium-pay surplus kept by facility operators
has increased to 100% from previous rates that required a 50/50
split with the provincial government.
A key government-
commissioned study shows that, of all the jurisdictions studied,
Ontarians in long term care facilities receive the lowest levels
of service despite having among the highest rates of Dementia, Alzheimers
Disease, depression, cognitive and activity of daily living impairment.
Connections
between the for-profit long term care industry and government are
cosier than ever. Canada’s largest owner-operator of for-profit
long term care facilities, CPL REIT had Ontario Premier Ernie Eves
on the Board of Trustees of its retirement division (Retirement
Residences REIT) until he returned to politics in April. Senator
Michael Kirby - head of a committee prescribing directions for the
future of health care in Canada - sits on the Board of Extendicare
Inc. Political donations to the current provincial government are
unprecedented.
Conclusions
As the Romanow
Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada conducts its final
round of consultations, we are seeing provincial governments such
as Ontario’s push for increased private-sector involvement
in the provision of care. Will the future of care for the fastest
growing population in the country lie in unregulated for-profit
retirement homes? Is it sound policy to continue and expand the
public financing of private nursing homes run for-profit?
Our conclusions
are cautionary. The evidence to date shows that an increasingly
privatized and consolidated long term care industry promotes an
influential and well-connected interest in deregulation of patient
care standards and increasing sources of revenue for profit-seeking
owner/operators. It does not reduce costs, has not improved staffing
conditions and has promoted the growth of a “second tier”.
It is not the answer to improving services. Governments must take
heed: ownership matters.
The full report
is available on our website at www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
The Ontario Health Coalition is Ontario’s most broadly representative
voice for public health care policy. Its membership encompasses
more than 300 member groups: community health coalitions, health
care workers at all levels, unions, social development agencies,
womens’ groups, seniors’ groups, low income and homeless
peoples’ organizations, ethnic and multiracial minorities’
groups, faith-based organizations, health centres and other citizens’
organizations.
Ontario Health Coalition, 15 Gervais Drive, Suite 305, Toronto,
Ontario M3C 1Y8
telephone 416-441-2502, fax 416-441-4073, email: ohc@sympatico.ca
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