[thistleclub]

Steve Buist's Critical Condition series in today's Spec casts a shadow on local health care.

Failing Grades On the LHIN Report Card

"Hamilton's Local Health Integration Network ranks 11th out of Ontario's 14 LHINs, based on the results of a massive health-care report card created by The Hamilton Spectator. Only the province's three northern LHINs fared worse than the Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Brant LHIN, which has a $2.5-billion budget to co-ordinate health-care services for 1.4 million people from Burlington to Brantford to Simcoe to Fort Erie... The Hamilton-area LHIN finished last in the cancer category, 13th out of 14 in the wait times category and 11th in the long-term care/home care category."

Performance indicators for our LHIN have apparently been trending lower in recent years.

"The Hamilton-area Local Health Integration Network failed to meet 10 of 11 targets in its most recent accountability report, the worst result of Ontario’s 14 LHINs. In fact, the local LHIN’s performance actually worsened for three of the indicators compared to the previous year."

Among the Spec's wait-time findings for the HNHB LHIN:

• It took 41 days for nine out of 10 people to get a CT scan, tied for the longest wait in the province. By contrast, it took just 14 days for nine out of 10 people to get a CT scan in the Central West LHIN, the best in Ontario.

• When all MRI variables were combined, the HNHB LHIN finished last in the province.

• Just over half of the HNHB LHIN’s Priority 2 MRI scans were done within the provincial target time. In the North Simcoe-Muskoka LHIN, by contrast, 94 per cent of priority 2 MRIs were done within the target.

• Only 15 per cent of HNHB LHIN’s Priority 4 MRI scans were done within the target wait time.

• The HNHB LHIN had the fourth-worst wait time for hip replacement surgery. It took 235 days for nine out of 10 patients to have their hips replaced, compared to 93 days in the Erie St. Clair LHIN."