The $348-million tower at Royal Jubilee Hospital includes features ranging from plentiful handrails for tottery seniors to wards that can be pressure-sealed in ‘hot zone’ fashion if the Ebola virus ever shows up here. And the premiers will see lots of sinks – over 1,400 of them. The idea being, getting health care workers to wash their hands between visiting patients is a great way to cut down on run of the mill, hospital-acquired infections.
Ms. Clark hopes to come away from the meeting, which wraps up Tuesday, with a united call for a national health care innovation fund. After all, who can be against innovation – or more federal health dollars? Premier Brad Wall and others are already on the same songsheet, if anything there will be some jockeying to take credit for the scheme.
It would be nice to find unity on something, at least, and the federal fiscal plan for the next decade of health transfers to the provinces is not a likely source of harmony.
Ms. Clark came out swinging on Friday against the formula, calling it an unworkable attack on seniors. She wants to persuade Ottawa to re-jig the per capita funding transfer to reflect the higher costs of taking care of seniors.
While Ms. Clark will find lots of company among the premiers in criticizing the deal, her idea for reshaping the formula will make some enemies.
Ms. Clark’s proposal would be worth $111-million annually to her province while Quebec would see $259-million more. But Ontario would see its funding reduced by $128-million and Alberta would take the biggest hit, losing $370-million each year.
A bold prediction: There will be more consensus on the value of hospital sinks.
Original Article
Source: Globe
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