Did
fundraisers and the management
of Brampton Civic Hospital
ever told the community that large sections of the hospital are
privatized and run for profit ?
- 2 NRI's death by Brampton Civic Hospital- due
to P3 (public private partnership)
- The Punjabi community, in particular, has been the target
of a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign for the hospital.
but fundraisers and the management never told the community
that large sections of the hospital are privatized and run for
profit.
- Double the original cost ($350 to $650 million) the hospital
has 3/4 of the promised beds (608 to 479).
December 10, 2007
Gary Singh/Chandar Shekhar
2 NRI's death within one month and negative response by hospital
officials- raised question period at Queen's Park and demanded
the premier call a public inquiry. George Smitherman, Health Minister
put Brampton Civic Hospital on notice yesterday that he is seeking
legislative approval to bring in a supervisor to assume all powers
of the board of directors and report directly to him. Mr. Smitherman
informed the board of William Osler in a letter yesterday that
he will appoint Ken White as supervisor.
P3 hospital was a new idea or scheme came up in 2002 by previous
Progressive Conservative government. Liberals have said they have
not adopted the P3 model but while they are planning to use private
capital in many of 100 hospital projects, they insist the government
is not losing control of the public health-care system. Brampton
Civic is Ontario's first "public-private partnership"
or P3 hospital.
It was built for $500 million by a private consortium
called The Healthcare Infrastructure Company of Canada, which
holds a 25-year contract to run parking, food services, portering,
security, cleaning and other services.
If below article is correct- the hospital under P3 scheme will
run with profit by invetors, how cum hospital management collected
millions of dollars from NRI community. If private consortium
can get a benfit from their investment then why not NRI community
can get return of their investment. This is a serious matter.
NRI community should contact top lawyers if fundraisers
and the management never told the community that large sections
of the hospital are privatized and run for profit.
P3 is all non-sense if below article is correct
GREAT ARTICLE: Read
below article that will tell us how P3 Hospital works
Ontario Health Coalition
The PULSE: UPDATE
COMMENTARY
Brampton P3 Hospital Target of Massive Community Unrest:
Province Needs to Help Out Hospital and Stop Secrecy
By Natalie Mehra, Director
December 10, 2007
Brampton’s new hospital was supposed to be the cause of
celebration. Instead, after being open for only one month, it
is mired in controversy. Last weekend, thousands of people took
to the streets to protest two patients’ deaths which the
public is attributing to inadequate beds and lengthy waits. Today,
the provincial government appointed a supervisor to take over
the hospital to “restore public confidence”.
The hospital is the province’s first - and largest - P3
(public private partnership). A group of multinational corporations
built the hospital in return for a contract that pays them not
only large profits for putting up the money for the building,
but also gives them a guaranteed 25-year contract to take over
the hospital support services and lands to run them for profit.
The Brampton P3 hospital features the deepest, longest-term for-profit
privatization of any hospital built in Ontario since the inception
of Medicare.
Since major cost escalations across all Ontario’s new P3
hospital deals have rendered unbelievable the claim that P3s come
in “on time and in budget”, the McGuinty government’s
new line is that P3 privatization has nothing to do with service
cuts. But the government’s own documents show that the size
of the planned hospital was reduced to contain the costs escalations
of the for-profit consortium. From the outset of negotiations
with the private consortium when the hospital was projected to
cost $350 million, to the end of negotiations when the hospital
cost $550 million, the negotiated size of the hospital shrunk
from 608 to approx. 350 beds. In response to community pressure,
the government gave another $100 million early this year and the
bed total was increased to 479.
Bottom line? For almost double the original cost ($350 to $650
million) the hospital has 3/4 of the promised beds (608 to 479).
Independent experts who have looked at the contracts have raised
serious concerns about the costs of the scheme. The interest rates
for the private consortium were about 120 basis points higher
than government financing rates. The difference means that the
deal is $174 million more expensive than if the province had financed
the hospital through its own means. In addition to the extra interest
costs, the private sector is taking exorbitant profits out of
the hospital. The equity investors are receiving $260 million
in dividends plus the return of their initial $61 million investment.
($260 million is enough to build en entire new community hospital.
It is an extraordinary amount in profits on a hospital that was
originally supposed to cost $350 million.)
The contract is ultimately paid from the Ministry of Health budget.
So every dollar that has been siphoned off for the management
fees, dividends and consultants’ profits (none of which
would exist if the hospital was publicly financed) is a dollar
less that should have gone to health care – doctors, nurses,
support services, beds.
In all new hospitals, local towns are expected to raise a percentage
of the costs. Here, because the costs doubled, the community fundraising
portion increased from an original reported target of $100 million
to more than $230 million. For months community members have been
alternately cajoled and threatened with service cuts by hospital
officials and the local press, as the hospital has struggled to
raise money for the local fundraising share. The Punjabi community,
in particular, has been the target of a multi-million dollar fundraising
campaign for the hospital. But fundraisers and the government
never told the community that large sections of the hospital are
privatized and run for profit. According to newspaper reports,
the family of Mr. Harnek Singh Sidhu, one of the patients who
died in the hospital in recent weeks, gave the hospital a donation
of more than $20,000, for example.
Cost is not the only problem. So too is loss of control over
vital hospital services to private interests. All the hospital
support services are managed by the private sector for their own
profit for the 25 year duration. If there are quality issues such
as increases in infection rates or loss of patients’ records,
the hospital must follow an arbitration and legal process set
out in the P3 contract in order to assert their control. For example,
if the private companies lose a patient as they transport her
around the hospital, the hospital’s only recourse is set
out in the “project agreement”. They can seek a fine
from the private company: so much if the patient is missing for
a certain number of hours, more if she is gone for longer etc.
If the private sector refuses, everyone has to bring in their
lawyers to fight it out. At every step of the way the hospital
has to decide whether it spends its remaining money on doctors
and nurses or on lawyers and arbitrators.
No wonder Standard and Poors (credit rating agency for the financial
industry) has considered P3s to be low risk investments in which
the private sector takes on little real risk while reaping more-than-healthy
profit margins from public taxes. After all, the interests of
the government and hospital board require them to keep open a
functioning hospital while the profit-seeking mandate of the private
investors hold them to no such scruples. They can sell off their
interest in the hospital at any time and walk away with the windfall.
Ultimately, the Brampton P3 hospital will cost us at least $3.5
billion with the 25 year service deal and equipment included.
Residents of Brampton and Ontario will have to pay the high costs
of the scheme, whether we like it or not. But we should not do
so without requiring the provincial government to answer for why
they have committed the next generation to paying out $3.5 billion
for a gain of only about 130 new hospital beds. And they need
to clear up whether additional monies will be given to the private
sector to get the bed totals up to the promised numbers.
The people of Brampton never asked to be guinea pigs in an experiment
about an expanded role for profit-seeking companies and financiers
in our hospitals. In fact, both the Harris/Eves and McGuinty governments
have gone out of their way to confuse the community about the
nature of the P3 deal, even going so far as to deny the obvious
privatization and rename the P3s as “Alternative Financing”
or “Alternative Procurement” as cover up. This strategy
of denial and obfuscation must stop. A proper evaluation of the
policy must be made and private interests must not be allowed
to trump the public interest. For at stake is a huge hospital
building program covering dozens of new hospitals.
A clear public plan must be put into place to provide the support
that the hospital needs to provide adequate services to the community
and get the bed totals up to promised levels. The provincial government
must provide these. Brampton’s hospital needs financial
aid and human resources recruiting help. It is time that the province
evaluate and learn the lessons of the Brampton P3, including a
full audit by the provincial auditor. For their part, the local
hospital must stop the secrecy and come clean with the community
about how many beds are actually open and operational, how much
of a budget deficit they are facing, and what the consequences
of these shortfalls are. The fundraising drive must not be allowed
to eclipse public accountability and sound democratic practice.
We are citizens not customers and should be treated as such. And
as community members, who fund the hospital through taxes at multiple
layers of government and local fundraising, and who require hospital
services as a matter of life and death, we have a right to at
least this minimal level of public accountability.
Ontario Health Coalition
15 Gervais Drive Suite 305
Toronto, ON M3C 1Y8
Phone: 416-441-2502
Fax: 416-441-4073
Courstsy
of: Kuljit Singh AMP,
Member, Ontario Health Coalition (Brampton Unit)
