Date: Fri, 25 Oct 2002 15:28:12 -0400


Kirby report slips poison pill into healthy dose of public investments:
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario

TORONTO, Oct. 25, 2002 - Recommendations of a Senate committee report on
Canadian health care released today deserve both condemnation and
commendation, says the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO).

"While some of the recommendations would build on the strength of our
health-care system, others would tear it down piece by piece," said RNAO
president Adeline Falk-Rafael, responding to the report of the Senate
Standing Committee on Social Affairs, Science and Technology, chaired by
Senator Michael Kirby.

"The commitment to provide the public with more nursing students, nurses
and nurse practitioners is welcome news, as is the emphasis on expanded
roles for nurses and nurse practitioners in primary health-care teams,"
said Falk-Rafael. "But nurses don't want to work in an unstable system
derailed by competitive bidding and a race to the bottom line - and
that's what some of the other recommendations will inevitably lead to."

Added RNAO executive director Doris Grinspun: "Mr. Kirby is asking the
public to swallow in one gulp a good dose of public investment in health
care and a bitter poison pill that will kill Medicare and bankrupt the
system. For-profit health-care delivery costs more and delivers less."

Grinspun said the association supports such proposals as the national
pharmacare program, earmarked funds for health care, and coverage for
palliative care services. But it rejects the introduction of competitive
bidding between hospitals, the switch from global to service-based
funding, sending people to other countries for care instead of fixing
our own waiting list problem, and allowing hospitals to contract out
post-acute home-care services to for-profit companies.

"We have seen here in Ontario what competitive bidding in home care
brings to the public: chaos, cut-backs in services, and job insecurity
for health-care providers. In the hospital sector, it will lead to
bottom-line care, while service-based funding will set one department
against another, beggaring the less prominent areas of care like
gerontology and psychiatry."

Grinspun also questioned why the report's recommendation on primary
health-care services - which the association supports -- was silent on
how the services would be managed and governed.  "Will these services be
governed by community boards or for-profit organizations? If hospitals
are given the responsibility of managing primary care, home care and
hospital care within a competitive bidding system, you have the makings
of a U.S. style health-maintenance system (HMO)," said Grinspun. "And
that's clearly not the choice of Canadians."

The Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) is the professional
association representing registered nurses wherever they practise in
Ontario. Since 1925, RNAO has lobbied for healthy public policy,
promoted excellence in nursing practice, increased nurses' contribution
to shaping the health-care system, and influenced decisions that affect
nurses and the public they serve.

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For more information, please contact:

Sine MacKinnon, Director of Communications
Registered Nurses Association of Ontario
Tel. (416) 599-1925, ext. 209 / (416) 829-6657 (cellular phone)
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