Watchdog pushes for oversight of hospitals
June 18, 2008
Comments on this story
(3)
Kerry Gillespie
QUEEN'S PARK BUREAU
Ontario's ombudsman says the superbug C. difficile, which has cost the lives of about 260 people, would have been investigated by now if the government wasn't too frightened of embarrassment to let him do it.
André Marin says he's "uncovered a treasure trove of government maladministration" and that it's time the province let him look at hospitals.
Right now, hospitals are beyond Marin's investigative powers and he used the release of his annual report yesterday to demand change.
"With the annual health-care budget eating up a whopping $40 billion, or 40 per cent of the government's total spending, it's unthinkable that this sector isn't subject to the same kind of oversight as the rest of government," Marin said.
Clostridium difficile, a bacterium that attacks the intestines causing severe diarrhea, has led to the deaths of at least 260 patients in seven Ontario hospitals since 2006.
"I would have been all over that," Marin said.
But the government has ignored calls to expand his powers to include hospitals.
"What is the hesitancy? One is, fundamentally, that they're trying to contain perhaps an embarrassing situation," Marin said.
In his three years as ombudsman, Marin has a track record of getting the province to act on his recommendations – from more security measures on lottery tickets to expanded newborn health screening – but, so far, he isn't getting anywhere on this one.
"It's not in the government's plans to move forward on," Health Minister George Smitherman said when asked about extending Marin's powers to cover hospitals.
Ontario might be the only province that does not give its ombudsman power to investigate hospitals and long-term care facilities, but Smitherman said the province has other measures including community governance of hospitals, a provincial auditor general and a 1-800 line for concerns about long-term care facilities.
Combined, it's "a regime that is sufficiently powerful for the protection of the public," he said.
Opposition critics don't think so and say C. difficile is a perfect example of why more hospital oversight is needed.
"We know there are some measures that have been taken to try and fix the situation but we don't know if those measures are being adhered (to), so the public is in the dark," Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory said.
"Every time somebody walks into a hospital in this province they don't know whether policies have been put in place to stop them from getting infected."
If the government does relent and let him investigate hospitals, Marin said he'd have to hire more staff to do it.
When Quebec's ombudsman was given oversight of hospitals, the office there hired 40 more people.
Marin's current priority is hospitals but in addition a list of what he really wants to be also able to investigate includes municipalities, universities, schools and children's aid societies.
"We're talking about pennies a day, a drop in the bucket, it wouldn't be a lot of money to provide that kind of service," Marin said.
Toronto Star
Featured Sponsored Listings