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OHA is no longer voice of hospitals, says writer |
Letter to the Editor To Comment on this article Click Here |
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Re: the Canadian Medical Association report I am very pleased that the Canadian Medical Association has released its report, in which it has noted the serious movements away from the tenets of the Canada Health Act by and through, in Ontario, the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) and the Ontario Ministry of Health.These bodies have been crowing that the Ontario Medical Association and the Professional Nurses Association had been in cahoots when issuing the last one or two major changes to the Hospitals Bylaws. This last list of amendments has exposed a serious crack in this arrangement by the OHA having to admit that the OMA was not in agreement—for the obvious reason that it did not wish to be a party to its own demise!! Its frontal attack is aimed directly at removing the doctors from any positions of authority (including disagreements with decisions of the hospital boards and chief executive officers). As has been noted in these pages many times, our hospitals will be nothing but “empty shells” without their ACTIVE presence. It is against our laws that no one can practise medicine but duly trained and licensed physicians but the CEOs want to take over the ways and means of treatment - and where these treatments are to be provided! The CEOs evidently fear that physicians will (and should) disagree with many of their plans for total control of the hospital system. There may be some truth that, in the very early days of government-regulated health care, many doctors were opposed to this system due to their fear of “socialized medicine.” This would place them on “payrolls” and being paid a salary for their services in contrast to a “fee for service (rendered) system” which is necessary to reflect the various levels within the Medical Hierarchy. That problem is not a factor these days.
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What has
happened to convert the OHA from a truly effective role as the "voice of
hospitals” during negotiations with the ministry - and even before the existence of the ministry, with the
Ontario Hospitals Services Commission? That OHA is long gone and should not
be considered a trustworthy body, in particular by rural hospitals throughout this province.
This body has advocated the elimination of all local community representatives and replaced them, without any consultation at the community level, by acquiescent members for their own, self-perpetuation reasons. In passing , I have just noted that, officially, the “H” in OHA refers NOT to hospitals but “Health care of Ontario” in the Pension Plan. There is no doubt in my mind that the CEOs in control of the OHA see themselves as the primary controllers of the “Health care” puzzle. They are growing from 200 plus (hospital pieces) to perhaps double that number! Their ambitions know no bounds!
Ian L Mitchell Kincardine
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