ONTARIO SUSPENDS HOMECARE COMPETITIVE BIDDING PROCESS

(The following article is from the March 1-15, 2008 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St. Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3).

PV Ontario Bureau

Public pressure from the trade union movement and the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) has led to a province-wide suspension of competitive bidding in homecare, People's Voice has learned. In February, PV reported on public protests in Hamilton that brought together 1,500 people in a town hall meeting, in response to what demonstrators called the McGuinty Liberal government's move to wipe out "over 100 years of non-profit home care."

     Homecare was a non-profit public service in Ontario until 1996. That's when the province introduced competitive bidding, under which private for-profit corporations compete for contracts against non-profit providers - community agencies controlled by a locally elected Board of Directors. According to the OHC, 80 to 90 percent of the costs for providing homecare are nurse and homemaker salaries and benefits. In 2004, under broad public pressure, the province put a moratorium on bids until fall 2007.

     Recent protests were also organized in Sarnia, Thunder Bay, Sudbury and Guelph after a December ruling in a competitive bidding process found that the Victorian Order of Nurses and St. Joseph's Home Care were not eligible to submit requests for proposals to provide home care services in Hamilton. The two organizations are the largest not-for-profit agencies in the region, providing about 80 percent of home nursing care.

     According to the Health Coalition, this would disrupt service, particularly for the elderly. "Homecare nursing and support are a vital part of the health-care system [and] should be treated as a professional public service rather than a commodity bought and sold for profit" the Coalition stated in a release. Unions have also pointed out that competitive bidding undermines decent working conditions.

     The province first suspended competitive bidding in Hamilton and then extended it province-wide. Health Minister George Smitherman has now issued a letter calling for consultations with the community and providers across Ontario.

     The call for more hearings has left some commentators saying "we have been through this before," as Derrell Dular of the Older Canadian's Network said in a release. The Eleanor Caplan hearings several years ago previously addressed competitive bidding. At the time, several unions and community groups were critical of Caplan's limited mandate, producing a costly and time-wasting report with no major results.

     "Competitive bidding was introduced by the Harris government to axe the grants to the Victorian Order of Nurses and the Red Cross and bring the for-profit multinationals into homecare," Natalie Mehra, Director of the Ontario Health Coalition stated. "It fragments rather than integrates care, turning providers into competitors who refuse to share information. It costs more and leads to all kinds of unnecessary duplication. It has reduced the scope of public coverage, it is a disaster for staffing shortages, it is for-profit clinical health care," she added.

     Labour and community groups are now meeting to map out an action plan. Representatives from SEIU, OPSEU, CUPE, ONA as well as local health coalition, seniors' organizations and others are expected to demand solutions such as provision of care by more local community-controlled not-for-profit providers; removing the prohibition against direct provision of care by the Community Care Access Centres; restoring democratic community governance of homecare services; establishing terms of employment that are equal to other sectors; and the complete end of competitive bidding.

     "This is not just a victory for home care, but also health care," CUPE researcher Doug Allen told People's Voice. "It clearly shows that competitive bidding and the market delivery of health care doesn't work, wastes money, and is inefficient." After years of fighting on this issue, Allen said he is left with the feeling "we were right all along."

Found at: http://www.peoplesvoice.ca/articleprint13/04%20ONTARIO_SUSPENDS_HOMECARE_COMPETITIVE_BIDDING_PROCESS.html