Hospital Professionals Division
 

Letter to the Editor -- Bracebridge Examiner

To the editor:

The ministry of health is so desperate to justify a bad decision regarding lab testing at Muskoka Algonquin, that it appears they will say just about anything without checking their facts or each other.

Steve Erwin, spokesperson for Health Minister David Caplan, told the Bracebridge Examiner that cost comparisons between private and public hospital labs were skewed because the figures “don’t include additional funding provided by a hospital towards these services from their budget.”

On the same day as this story appeared, Marnie Cooper, Acting Director of Laboratories for the province, wrote to OPSEU stating “the pilots are not, and have never been part of the global funding allocation of the hospital.”

Further, Erwin is incorrect in assuming the cost difference did not reflect what Gamma Dynacare was paid for collection of lab specimens. The report does cost comparisons on the model, not just on the hospital’s portion of the model. That includes collections.

With for-profit central testing costing an average of $33 per patient, compared to $22 in the local hospital, why would the province rush to terminate this project when the evidence suggests they should instead be expanding it?

Residents of Muskoka should be e-mailing Dalton McGuinty and asking him for accountability on this file. It is clear the ministry is more interested in dancing around a bad decision than fixing it. We should all be outraged.

Warren (Smokey) Thomas OPSEU President

View Letter: Bracebridge Examiner