Going once, going twice... Health care giants bid for home care Cashing in on need Ontario: Primed for costly privatization The cost of competition Staffing problems Out of pocket expenses on rise Funding and access cutbacks Home care is about women The need for federal action For-profit home care provision: expanding the market Olsten’s shoddy track record What is your province doing? Corporate classrooms costly..."My daughter needs medications and that restricts the number of homemakers qualified to help her. Even then I have to train the homemakers on how to give her particular medications. Sometimes no one who’s qualified is available, so no one comes. It has been a real struggle to access the system. I worry about those living alone. I worry about the future."
Caller to Toronto Care Watch home care hotline, published in "Behind Closed Doors: Home care stories from the community."
Funding and access cutbacks
The Ontario Ministry of Health promised increased health care funding would flow through the Community Care Access Centres. In March 1999, the Ontario government announced a $45 million investment in the provincežs 43 CCACs. However, this doesnžt make up for the $800 million cut from hospital budgets since 1997, leaving CCACs scrambling to make up the shortfall. In 1997-98 alone, the provincežs 43 CCACs ran a combined deficit of $34 million, despite following government guidelines about the number of nursing visits per day and the number of hours for homemaking per month. The provincial Auditor General found that the funding formula does not "establish the amount of funding required to provide an adequate level of service."
On top of increased private home care costs and government under-funding, the Ministry of Health has tightened home care eligibility requirements. Patients who desperately need home care suffer and unpaid caregivers (primarily women) bear a significant increase in the burden of care. New regulations, adopted without input from patient and caregiver groups, severely limit the number of home care hours. Guidelines issued in 1998 dictate that individuals must first exhaust the caregiving and support capacities of their friends, relatives and other community services.
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