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Premier Doug Ford's Ontario

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They haven't closed hospitals like Mike Harris did, but I am sure public health units in the rural areas that have been "merged" is a "closure" to those who relied on their services and now will have to travel further or do without. Privatization of health services is always for profit. True, services covered by taxes are services we all have paid for, however if they were to privatize these services our taxes will not go down and medical care premiums will always rise beyond a modest tax increase. You do not agree with my analysis but so far this government has made a mess of everything they "fixed". .

Cancer care services will be merged in with the "super agency" the government is flopping together and I know this service is going to suffer. This agency is also responsible of keeping track of regular health checkups for cancer i.e. mammograms and Pap test and fecal blood test and making sure you get regular reminders when it is your time to get tested. I know for sure not only bureaucrats are being given the pink slip. Yes we should be worried.
 
Whoa, the Ontario Health Coalition is a massive organisation representing hundreds of other organisations. Maybe they could put their time and money to better use directly supporting healthcare instead.

Anyway, someone explain this autism program to me, because the two autistic kids I know (both rather severe and violent) never had any sort of non-family help.

Also, we've never had proper mental health care in the first place, so there are deffo no losses there. Can't cut something that doesn't exist.

Yeah, we get it. I know what this government is about. Fact remains that "gutting our healthcare" hysterics is a bit much.
 
PinkLucy said:
Here's a lengthy list of all of the health care cuts: https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/mounting-health-care-cuts/
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[
SunriseChampion said:
Yeah, we get it. I know what this government is about. Fact remains that "gutting our healthcare" hysterics is a bit much.
Click to expand...

You're both right, as it were.

I reviewed the list of 'cuts'.

Some are very real and a concern.

Others were reasonable (limited foreign travel coverage)

Not yet spent (cutting a planned increase in spending)

Or were always temporary (surge funding for flu season)

Something I don't like is when you see everything and the kitchen sink in a list like that it dilutes attention to the more egregious, real, funding cuts and/or stupid moves.

The other thing that bothers me is it sort of has the ring of "any funding reduction for anything, ever, is a crime, no matter its effectiveness or obsolescence'. That sort of thing turns people off.

There's are several short-sighted cuts and mishandled files in Health, by the current government. A tighter focus on those would benefit everyone.

SunriseChampion said:
Anyway, someone explain this autism program to me, because the two autistic kids I know (both rather severe and violent) never had any sort of non-family help.

Also, we've never had proper mental health care in the first place, so there are deffo no losses there. Can't cut something that doesn't exist.
Click to expand...

Obviously I can't speak to the personal cases of which you are aware, though on its face those kids likely qualified for at least some care/support and would have for the last several years at any rate.

However, there has been a serious backlog (years) where families can't even get their kids properly assessed, let alone get treatment/support.

What Ford did on this file, initially was not so much a 'cut' per se as to move to put more money on the assessment side to get families assessed faster.

But rather than doing so w/new money, he redirected it by capping the amount of $ available for care once you're assessed.

A right hand giveth, left hand taketh sorta deal.

It was bad policy, and bad optics which makes for very poor politics.

The system does need net new dollars and a tidy sum at that.

There really is money that can be saved in healthcare in terms of the way in which the system is managed.

I think people, however, should be rightly fearful that much of that hasn't been targeted as yet, and instead we're seeing a more sloppy, across-the-board approach to reductions rather that surgical/thoughtful intervention.

Even where the Ford gov't is on to a good idea. (ie. Cancer Care Ontario does have a great reputation for coordinating care well across the province, for being administratively efficient and for rolling out best practices based on evidence throughout the system, ergo letting that agency's culture and ethos expand to govern a larger range of medical disciplines make sense)..........They're efforts feel rushed and I worry they will very much mess up the details.
 
Yes, it's a blanket list but it speaks to the sweeping and, as you say, rushed nature of all of this. There were very few consultations and when there were, they were minimal efforts at best. And yes, change isn't always bad and I am sure efficiencies can be found, but just throwing everything together into super agencies is going to result in chaos, not improvements.

My concern is that many of these cuts and changes impact preventive health care without which we end up paying more in the long run -- not that this government does much in the way of long-range planning. They also impact alternative health care (midwifery for example) which can divert services towards lower cost options and without which we again end up paying more. The potential cuts to pain management and sedation services being covered under OHIP are what lead towards two-tier systems where those who can't afford it won't do it, again leading to higher health costs down the line.

The cuts to Public Health are very concerning. Again, this front line interventive service offers a wide range of services at a reduced cost. Amalgamating these agencies into units that will serve huge amounts of people isn't a good thing -- again, I do agree that there are likely efficiencies, but the chaos and confusion this will cause is more likely to lead to inefficiencies and gaps in service.

Similarly, the cuts to health care screening -- we'll end up paying more down the line without such easily accessible early detection systems.

So many cuts to services for women ... OBS/GYN, maternal health, midwifery.

As for autism, it's a spectrum, so if your neighbour's kids don't need, or choose not to use, the services that's great, but there are plenty who do. Yes, there was a long wait list previously, but not one child has been moved up the wait list with these changes despite promises to the contrary. Not one.

And what are these cuts getting us? If the deficit actually was lowered, that would be one thing. But it hasn't been. So are these cuts paying for legal fees and broken contracts such as the one with the Beer Store? Thanks, but I'd rather wait to let that contract run out and keep these services.

And I don't think we have seen the end of it. It's death by a thousand cuts.
 
[B][QUOTE]Mike Crawley[/B]@[B]CBCQueensPark[/B] 3m
BREAKING: Huge cabinet shuffle by Ontario Premier Doug Ford. He demotes Finance Minister Vic Fedeli to Economic Development, puts Rod Phillips in Finance, Stephen Lecce in Education, Caroline Mulroney in Transportation, Todd Smith to CmtySocialSvcs. Cabinet balloons to 28 #onpoli
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https://twitter.com/hashtag/onpoli?src=hash

Imo Economic Development is a better positon than Finance, with more wining and dining and jetsetting on trade missions.
 
Ford still gets re-elected unless Liberals can put forth a palatable leader (and that seems unlikely). Nothing to celebrate here.
 
All but one high profile minister is moved. The only survivor is Chistine Elliot.

Yurek from Transportation to Environment
Fedelli from Finance to Eco. Dev.
Lisa MacLeod from Comm & Social service to Tourism
Lisa Thompson from Education to Gov't and Consumer Services

Promotions:

Rod Phillips from Environment to Finance
Todd Smith to Comm. and Social Services
Stephen Lecce gets Education
 
"Efficiencies"...

Premier Doug Ford's cabinet is ballooning from 21 members to 28, including him. That's a 33 per cent increase in size.

After the PCs formed a majority government last year, Ford said he intended to keep his cabinet small to save taxpayers' money.
 
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