St. Joseph's to shutter four clinics
February 10, 2010
Theresa Boyle
HEALTH REPORTER
St. Joseph's Health Centre in west-end Toronto is closing its after-hours, pain, cardiac rehabilitation and audiology clinics as of April 1.
The closings come as all hospitals across the province look for savings in an attempt to balance their budgets and as the province faces a $24.7 billion deficit.
"There are challenges in funding across the system as a whole ... There are changes that need to be made and that's being experienced by everyone because of the economic environment," said hospital spokeswoman Michelle Tadique.
Tadique did not know, when interviewed Tuesday, how many patients are served by the clinics or whether staff would be laid off.
Tadique said the same services are available elsewhere in the community, but could not say whether people would have to pay out-of-pocket for some of them.
She pointed out that people who otherwise would have gone to the hospital's after-hours clinic could go to a walk-in clinic instead.
The services offered by the outpatient clinics in question are not deemed "core" to an acute care hospital, she added. All savings will be reallocated to core services, for example, the hospital's emergency department.
Meantime, Toronto East General hospital is closing its physiotherapy clinic later this year. And St. Michael's Hospital is postponing elective surgery and reducing office cleaning to save money.
Hospitals are working with 14 provincial agencies or local health integration networks (LHINs) to determine where services are available in the community. LHINs coordinate local health services.
"From the LHIN's point of view, we want to make sure that hospitals and community agencies are working together to look at new ways of building services because not everything should be delivered in hospitals. Frankly, we want to see a system where there is more community-based care," said Janine Hopkins, spokeswoman for the Toronto Central LHIN.
Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, warned that people will end up paying out-of-pocket for services: "I believe people will wind up paying for services and that's why they should be concerned about the loss of the clinics. Some people won't be able to access them because they can't afford to."
Cheri DiNovo, NDP MPP for Parkdale-High Park, where the St. Joseph's Health Centre is located, accused the provincial government of using the LHINs to make cuts and privatize services "by stealth."
Toronto Star