Nice to see Liberals have hospitals / health care under control.

[ZR]

Dana Whitman, who is undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer, had been warned to go straight to emergency if she developed a fever. She was even given a special “fever card” that is supposed to allow chemotherapy patients to jump the queue to avoid sitting in crowded waiting rooms because they are so vulnerable to infection between rounds of the treatment.
But that’s not what happened when she went to Queensway Carleton Hospital’s emergency room last week — feeling “absolutely horrible” and running a fever of 102 degrees F — in the midst of the ongoing overcrowding crisis.
Despite her fever card, Whitman was told by staff in emergency that there was nothing they could do to help her bypass the crammed waiting room. Whitman put on a face mask to protect herself and sat in the waiting room for four-and-a-half hours before she was taken into the emergency department. She was led past people lying on stretchers and taken to what appeared to be a storage room, she said. There were chairs, pillows and blankets stacked around her, and no bed.
“They said they wanted to get me out of the waiting room.”
Whitman praised staff who appeared to be scrambling to cope with the situation, she said. But she remains shocked at her experience. “It was a nightmare.”
Of the emergency department, she said, “I felt like I was in a war zone.”
Officials from the Queensway Carleton and The Ottawa Hospital confirmed this week they are dealing with an ongoing overcrowding crisis. It led the Queensway Carleton to cancel elective surgery on Tuesday to make room for more than 20 patients who had been admitted to the hospital through the emergency department but for whom there were no beds. The Ottawa Hospital has not cancelled any surgery but has been forced to find unusual spaces for patients, including an office in one case and a wheelchair in the corner of a waiting room for another patient. As of Tuesday, The Ottawa Hospital was at 115 per cent of capacity. It has been steadily over 100 per cent capacity for weeks.
Officials with Queensway Carleton did not comment on Whitman’s specific case. But spokewoman Cara Salci said in an email: “Like many other hospitals in the province we are experiencing high volumes in our emergency department and our team is doing all that we can to care for patients’ safety and as quickly as possible. We continue to see high patient volumes in our emergency department and have opened 12 overflow beds to create capacity.”
The hospital encouraged Whitman to contact the hospital’s patient ombudsman to discuss her experience. “The emergency department is a dynamic place and patient conditions can change during the course of their visit, this in turn can impact waiting times. Each patient that comes to our emergency department is triaged by a Registered Nurse based on the severity of their symptoms and condition.”
Whitman said she was surprised that the protocol she thought existed for chemotherapy patients was not followed at Queensway Carleton. Cancer patients are given a chemotherapy class and told to be alert for fevers during chemotherapy treatment and to go to the hospital immediately if they develop one.
“Yes, this is what our health care has come to,” she said in a Facebook comment posted under a Citizen story about the overcrowding crisis in Ottawa hospitals.
Whitman was treated with fluids in an intravenous drip and given a Tylenol to take her fever down. Blood and urine tests were conducted, as well as a chest X-ray. She later returned home and was told to monitor her heart rate and temperature. In a couple of days, she said, it turned around and she felt better.
“I don’t have an issue with the staff,” she said. “I just can’t believe this is what it has come to.”​

[RedSN]

Each patient that comes to our emergency department is triaged by a Registered Nurse based on the severity of their symptoms and condition.
I believe this statement to be true, and I think these people do a fantastic job given the circumstances and conditions. The ER can be a war zone.

So this woman had a get-out-of-jail-free card, and the triage nurse said no, we have more important emergency patients at the moment. The woman lived, right?

Whitman was treated with fluids in an intravenous drip and given a Tylenol to take her fever down...and she felt better
Yep. Lived. Another win.

[1quikgt]

Part of the problem is that people seem to go to the hospital for everything these days instead of the walkin or family doctor. Still no excuse to have a hospital over 100% full all the time though.

[ZR]

Risk of infection for many on chemo jumps to several times the norm and may border on hyper prone for others. Same goes for anyone on anti rejection meds after a transplant. For them, being exposed to people with even something as mundane as the flu or cold can prove fatal. My sister in law is on immune suppression meds, has been battling a blood infection for weeks now. That said, being as patients either on chemo or having had a transplant are not at all uncommon, why is there not a clean room available in every emmerg? Especially in the this day and age where you run into countless pricks that cough n hack into the air without covering their mouths.

[ZR]

Part of the problem is that people seem to go to the hospital for everything these days instead of the walkin or family doctor. Still no excuse to have a hospital over 100% full all the time though.

Yup lil Billy or Suzie with a skinned knee accompanied by a dozen family members is the norm.

[ZR]

Part of the problem is that people seem to go to the hospital for everything these days instead of the walkin or family doctor. Still no excuse to have a hospital over 100% full all the time though.

On the flip side, for all too many, appointment with their family doctor (if they have one) can take weeks or even months. Clinics around me continue to cut back on hours only compounding the problem.

[ZR]

It’s hard not to shake your head as the premier parades around the province playing hero on hydro relief.
Kathleen Wynne is, after all, responsible for forcing people in Ontario to choose between heating or eating. It was her government that created this hydro crisis.
But now she wants Ontarians to believe she is coming to your rescue. Well put away your cape, premier, because you aren’t being honest.
What’s missing on her self-congratulatory tour is honesty about who exactly will get help. Every single time, Wynne conveniently fails to mention who isn’t eligible to get much relief at all: Ontario’s hospitals.
Hospitals run 24/7. Lighting and equipment run around the clock. There is no such thing as operating a hospital at off-peak hours. Across Ontario, hospitals have seen rates soar and they’re being sucked up.
Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre in Barrie has seen rates increase by $200,000. The Timmins and District Hospital has seen rates increase by $375,000. The Collingwood General & Marine Hospital has seen an alarming 35% rate hike, and at the Sault Area Hospital we’ve seen them explode by 45%. This represents massive chunks of a hospital’s operating budget, but they won’t see a single cent of relief come under this expensive new hydro scheme.
And, we’re starting to see the effects of these soaring rates where it hurts the most: The front-line care our most vulnerable patients receive. Hospitals are being forced to lay off staff in order to afford these ever-increasing fixed costs.
Think about that for just one minute. Our nurses, our front-line staff, the ones we count on to care for our friends and family in times of need, are being let go to pay for Wynne’s hydro mistakes.
In my riding of Nipissing, the North Bay Regional Health Centre announced this week it is cutting 40 positions. That’s on top of another 350 cut in the last three years. The president and CEO of the hospital specifically referenced hydro costs as one of the underlying reasons.
Barrie, Timmins, Collingwood, and the Sault have all also seen health-care cuts.
When is this all going to stop? For hospitals across Ontario, evidently, it doesn’t. Whether it’s cut or frozen budgets, cuts to doctors and nurses, and now soaring hydro rates, for years, the Wynne Liberals have forced our hospitals to do more with less.
Not only that, but the problems are only going to get worse. The Wynne Liberals’ hydro scheme is nothing but a Band-Aid that’s only going to lead to even higher taxes and rates down the road, and the government continues to sign even more costly green energy contracts.
Patient care is only going to continue to slide, as hospitals are left with even bigger bills.
Premier, as you tour this province touting your relief plan, I’d suggest you put away your cape. You are no hero to those paying the enormous price of your mistakes.
— Fedeli is the Ontario Progressive Conservative MPP from Nipissing

https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.2239243.1436343754!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_620/image.jpg
​

[WTF]

I could write a fucking book about the horror show my wife went through

imo....once you're in the hospital they take damn good care of you.....problem is they don't wanna let you in

the entire system seems to want to brush you off of getting proactive procedures to identify the problems early on and just prescribe a few pills to see if that works

in my wife's case....if she woulda had the simple procedure she was asking for, for probably a decade prior...then the correct oral medication woulda taken care of the problem....overall cost to the system woulda been so minor....literally a few hundred bucks

but no... the system brushed her off until it was almost too late....and then the system has to desperately throw everything they've got at her to save her life.....I bet the overall cost to the system probably ended up well over $600,000

I'd love to sit across the table from that horrid bitch of a Premiere and tell her with great detail how her and her merry band of assholes have completely lost the plot on healthcare.....and I'd probably end up in handcuffs

[ZR]

My brothers wife continues to bounce in and out of hospital sometimes multiple times a day. Ambulance to local hospital with mid day transfer for tests to Oshawa or Toronto and back with no end in sight. Actions by the hospitals are a product of budgets, the very budget our premier continues to tug until it finally bursts. With patients numbers at an all time high, by no fault of their own, hospitals continue to lay off staff.

[WTF]

karma in my mind is when that incompetent bitch Wynne is laying in the OR needing life-saving surgery herself

no wind is blowing outside....and it's extremely cloudy

and the OR is powered by a fucking windmill and some solar panels

[ZR]

We, the people of Ontario, will end up footing the bill for a govt aircraft to ferry her ass to the US for treatment which will also be on our dime. The damage done by the current govt is immeasurable.

[ZR]

Support for Ontario’s Liberals is crumbling in the former suburban areas of Toronto, according to a Mainstreet Research poll.
While the provincial Liberals command a 42% lead among decided and leaning voters in Toronto, support for them outside the downtown area is wavering.
“Yes, the overall lead is still there in the 416, but really it’s only a lead in the downtown core” at 57%, said Quito Maggi, president and CEO of Mainstreet Research.
According to the poll, support for the Liberals in Etobicoke is 32%, compared to 45% for the Progressive Conservatives.
Wynne’s Liberals are also running in third place in Scarborough, where it is essentially a three-way split between the Tories, NDP and Grits (33%, 31% and 29%, respectively). And in North York, the Liberals only lead over the Tories by a few points.
‘Major losses’
All this “is pointing to major losses in the 416 for Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals,” Maggi said.


WTF is wrong with people, support should be zero.

[RedSN]

Really makes you wonder where that Ontario Health Premium we pay on our tax return goes?

Oh, right, into the big tax revenue cauldron. :facepalm:

[ZR]

So now they are using our money to tell us what a great job they've done on rolling back hydro bills. Just when you though the scum bag Liberal machine has hit rock bottom they find a way to outdo themselves yet again plus it's on a bill that hasn't even been passed yet.


TORONTO - The Liberal government’s new ads on hydro rate cuts don’t pass muster with Ontario’s Auditor General.

However, Bonnie Lysyk says her office had no choice but to approve a slew of new taxpayer-funded radio spots from the Liberal government about its plan to slash hydro rates.
Under the old rules, she could have spiked anything she deemed partisan. But since the Liberals changed the regulations in 2015, her office has little choice but to rubber-stamp back-slapping radio and TV spots.
“Our office approved the Hydro-related ads under the current version of the Government Advertising Act,” Lysyk said in a statement to the Toronto Sun. “However, they would not have passed under the previous legislation because we feel that these ads have the objective of fostering a positive impression of the government.”
The ads, which began running on radio stations across the province this week, tell listeners that the Liberals made important investments in clean and green energy. That has come at a cost and the rate cut is about addressing the impact on hydro bills.
“We’ve heard you,” a narrator says in one of the spots. “Hydro needs to be fair for everyone across the province and we’ve made fundamental changes to ensure this in the long-term.”
Colin Nekolaichuk, spokesman for Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault, defended the ads saying it’s the government’s responsibility to communicate information about the program to Ontarians. He also stressed that the government’s changes to advertising rules provided a “clearer definition” of partisan advertising.
Both opposition parties slammed the ads, calling on the Liberals to release the cost to taxpayers. Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown is also demanding Ontario’s Liberals pull the plug on “self-congratulatory” spots.
“Your government has no authority to be spending hard-earned taxpayer dollars on partisan radio and social media ads to promote a plan that has not yet been tabled, debated and voted on in the Legislature,” Brown said in a letter to Treasury Board President Liz Sandals.
New Democrat energy critic Peter Tabuns said that party will file Freedom of Information requests to unearth the cost of the ads. He accused the Liberal’s of using taxpayer money to buy support ahead of the 2018 election.
“Not one dime has come off people’s sky-rocketing hydro bills and Wynne hasn’t tabled legislation, or even a credible plan to save us money,” Tabuns said in a statement. “Yet, she’s spending more of people’s hard-earned dollars on ads claiming the problem is solved.”
Premier Kathleen Wynne rolled out her plan to slash hydro rates by 17% two weeks ago. When combined with an 8% HST rebate, the savings total 25%.
That plan, which is supposed to take effect this summer, will cost taxpayers an estimated $25 billion in interest payments as the government re-amortizes electricity deals over 30 years to achieve the short-term savings.

[Snaketamer]

As a late friend used to say...

'They fuck you when your up...they fuck you when your down....they fuck you all round...'

[ZR]

Quoted for truth.
Major frustration for me, how few peeps are truly pissed at how badly we are being corn holed n what it's going to cost our kids n our kids kids down the road.

[RedSN]

Colin Nekolaichuk, spokesman for Energy Minister Glenn Thibeault, defended the ads saying it’s the government’s responsibility to communicate information about the program to Ontarians.
Not buying this propaganda for a second.

When the government introduces something new that requires you to take action, like say "get your flu shot", then yes. But this "rate cut" requires no action. You don't have to do anything. And unless you have been living under a rock, you already new.

[WTF]

imo...the media spend is just another way to pad the pockets of their supporters....and there should be criminal laws in place to stop this shit

remember the Ont Pension Plan bullshit?.....as soon as Drama Boy won the federal election and made some tweaks the Ont Libs scrapped the Ont Pension plan (after spending $75 million setting up the bureaucracy)....and then they threw an ad campaign out there patting themselves on the back for what the Feds did

if memory serves....a FOI request revealed that the back-patting ad campaign had a budget of $12 million.....but here's the kicker....only $3 million was actually spent buying the ads

in the private sector....if you had a $12 million dollar budget, and only ended up spending $3 million buying the actual media time/space and literally pissed away $9 million paying the endless trough of teat suckers lined up to take a chunk based on useless billed hours.....well....you would be unemployed

so I'm looking forward to seeing what the FOI request reveals on this Hydro Rate ad campaign

fwiw....I know my shit very well on this file....and if you have a $12 million budget.....you better be spending at least $10 million buying the time and space....the value you buy with that budget is the audience you're targeting.....not the people sitting around the boardrooms setting up endless meetings with billable hours in play

the rot runs deep with these fuckers

[WTF]

correction

http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/ontario-liberals-hydro-rebate

it was the Hydro rate cut based on income from last fall....the Ont Pension pat-on-the-back radio campaign was $800,000

9.3 million on consultants....2.4 million spent on media

fucking criminal

here's a car buying analogy comparing the private sector vs gov't

private sector dude budgets $120,000 for a new car....does little legwork...a few test drives and buys a new $120,000 Benz

gov't budgets $120,000 for a new car....pays $93,000 in billable hours to get the opinions of countless bureaucrats....then buys a $41,000 Chevy Volt....bills $14,000 back to the tax payers for some bullshit green-scheme-subsidy and uses the $27,000 they have left to buy the car

got it?

fucking criminal

[ZR]

^ Yes they do.

[Snaketamer]

Quoted for truth.
Major frustration for me, how few peeps are truly pissed at how badly we are being corn holed n what it's going to cost our kids n our kids kids down the road.

Our P3 'white elephant' of a hospital took 30 years to plan and build. It's taken less than half a decade to run it into the ground. My wife has been in nursing 38 years and can't believe the changes...the surgery unit she works in has turned into a nursing home.
The local college, Canadore, has been lobbying the city to partner with them on a P3 arena and all I can think is...you've got to be fucking kidding me...

[Mellow Yellow]

Support for Ontario’s Liberals is crumbling in the former suburban areas of Toronto, according to a Mainstreet Research poll.
While the provincial Liberals command a 42% lead among decided and leaning voters in Toronto, support for them outside the downtown area is wavering.
“Yes, the overall lead is still there in the 416, but really it’s only a lead in the downtown core” at 57%, said Quito Maggi, president and CEO of Mainstreet Research.
According to the poll, support for the Liberals in Etobicoke is 32%, compared to 45% for the Progressive Conservatives.
Wynne’s Liberals are also running in third place in Scarborough, where it is essentially a three-way split between the Tories, NDP and Grits (33%, 31% and 29%, respectively). And in North York, the Liberals only lead over the Tories by a few points.
‘Major losses’
All this “is pointing to major losses in the 416 for Kathleen Wynne and the Liberals,” Maggi said.


WTF is wrong with people, support should be zero.

I know Quito, speak with him weekly via conference call....very intelligent.