http://www.thespec.com/News/BreakingNews/article/391897
Liberal C. diff “cover-up” threatening lives: Opposition
June 24, 2008
By Keith Leslie
THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Premier Dalton McGuinty and the Liberal government are
putting lives at risk by covering up the extent of the deadly C.
difficile outbreak in Ontario hospitals, the province’s opposition
parties charged Tuesday.
There have been 264 deaths confirmed at seven Ontario hospitals since
2006 from C. difficile, a drug-resistant bacteria that spreads in
health-care institutions, but there are re****ts of outbreaks at up to
19 hospitals in the province.
The Progressive Conservatives and New Democrats have been demanding an
independent review of the problem for months, but the government has
so far flatly rejected their calls.
“I think this is a huge scandal of neglect and cover-up on the part of
the government,” said Conservative Leader John Tory.
“There can be no explanation for their absolute failure to have
anybody take a look at this, as has been done in Scotland, Ireland,
the Netherlands and so on, other than they want to cover it up and put
politics ahead of the public interest.”
The New Democrats said they were concerned the death toll from C.
difficile would turn out to be much higher in Ontario after hospitals
review their patient charts. Joseph Brant Hospital in Burlington did
such a review after an outbreak and discovered it had 62 deaths in a
20-month period.
“We owe it to the public to restore public confidence,” said NDP
health critic France Gelinas. “If we went to those 19 hospitals and
did the same review of the charts that was done at Joseph Brant, we
may discover hundreds and hundreds more people have died from C.
difficile.
“I hope I’m wrong.”
Tory said he too had “every reason to believe” that more C. difficile
deaths will be re****ted at Ontario hospitals because the Liberal
government refuses to agree to an inquiry to learn what went wrong and
how to prevent more outbreaks.
“I think they’re paralyzed with the political fear about actually
having the truth come out in terms of their own negligence,” said
Tory.
“It is putting lives at risk because people will perhaps delay in
going to the hospital or there will be things that are not being done
in hospitals that should be done, and that’s putting people’s lives at
risk.
“It’s as simple as that.”
Ombudsman Andre Marin asked for the power to investigate families’
complaints about C. difficile deaths at Ontario hospitals in his
annual re****t issued last week, and said his office “would have been
all over” the outbreak much earlier on if he had the authority.
Marin, who called C. difficile a tragedy, questioned the government’s
hesitancy and suggested it was “trying to contain perhaps an
embarrassing situation.”
The New Democrats said they too think the ombudsman should have the
power to investigate complaints against hospitals to help restore the
public’s confidence in Ontario’s health-care system.
“If we had this neutral third party that you could go to when
everything else has been exhausted, probably some of those deaths
would have been prevented,” said Gelinas.
“It has gone too far. You have to give all those people a chance to
have their complaints heard, and at the same time give every Ontarian
their faith back in the excellent health-care system that we have.”
The government has rejected all calls for an inquiry, saying it
learned enough from a coroner’s review into C. difficile deaths in
Sault Ste. Marie.
Health Minister David Caplan’s office did not respond to requests
Tuesday to comment on the C. difficile outbreak and the charges of a
government cover-up.
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Regards
Pat Gardiner
Release the results of testing British pigs for MRSA and C.Diff now!
www.go-self-sufficient.com
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