McGuinty Another $200 Million Wasted

McGuinty thinks he's the health care Premier, right?

"As part of its Emergency Room Wait Time Strategy, the Ontario government is investing more than $82 million in 2009/10 to reduce the amount of time people spend in hospital emergency rooms (ERs). This is the second year that the government is investing in this comprehensive strategy. The strategy helps hospitals improve emergency room (ER) performance in a number of ways".

So how did Premier Dud do spending $200 million of your taxpayer dollars?

"Provincial Auditor General Jim McCarter revealed in his annual report Monday that despite an extra $200 million being pumped into driving emergency room wait times down in the last two years, significant Ontario-wide progress “has not yet been made.”

The auditor found patients with serious conditions sometimes waited in emergency 12 hours or more — far greater than the province’s eight-hour wait time target.

McCarter also discovered emergency patients who need a bed waited on average for about 10 hours but some waited 26 hours or more.

On Saturday, Marlene Stephens, a 41-year-old daycare worker and mother of two, died at William Osler Health Centre’s Etobicoke campus emergency room after waiting for nearly two hours to be seen by a physician, her family claims.

“This is terrible,” said Marlene’s mother, Thelma Lee.

“Nobody should go through this type of situation.”

Stephens was taken to hospital with breathing problems and languished without being attended to, Lee says."

So how was that $200 million doled out? "The program, known as Pay for Results, rewards hospitals for meeting specific ER wait time reduction targets. It also provides them with opportunities and funding to meet these targets". So do we really know what the actual wait times are? Or would hospitals exaggerate the numbers to get more taxpayer money for themselves? I'm guessing yes.

$200 million with next to no results. $1 billion for E-Health for absolutely nothing. Premier Dud decided that eye exams and physio should be de-listed as the province couldn't afford it (see $1.2 billion wasted above). Of course he did feel that taxpayers should pay for sex-change operations. Question: How many eye exams could be covered for the cost of one sex change? Someone should ask McGuinty that.