The ORNGE fiasco represents a “colossal failure” of governance and accountability and is hobbling the province in its ability to cut the deficit, a former deputy health minister says.
Michael Decter, who served as deputy in the former Bob Rae government and continues to be a leading Canadian expert on health systems, told an audience of senior health officials Tuesday that the scandal at Ontario’s air ambulance service is making it difficult for the province to ask the health sector to cough up millions in savings.
“In my view it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the sector,” Decter said, noting that Don Drummond’s recommendations on paying down the $16 billion deficit were released earlier this month, just two months after the Star first broke the story about improprieties at ORNGE.
The different players in the sector can be adversarial, Decter said, referring to the fact that hospitals, doctors, community agencies and others often compete for funding and authority.
While they have been known to put their differences aside and work for the common good during tough times in the past, this time it’s different, he told about 300 people at a Breakfast with the Chiefs event at St. Michael’s Hospital, a speakers’ series organized by Longwoods Publishing.
“Getting any change made requires getting some moral authority that we have to do things together. The problem with ORNGE is that everyone in this room and everyone out there in the health sector is going to say, ‘That $25 million, that is the money I needed to run my program.’ ”
Decter was referring to $25 million unaccounted for after $275 million was raised by ORNGE with taxpayers’ help.
“It really undercuts the credibility of not just the minister but the government at a really bad time. We really are getting into difficult economic times,” he said.
Decter said the ORNGE scandal likely caused the Drummond report to undergo major last-minute editing.
He explained that when ORNGE was originally created, it represented a new way of doing things, by leveraging Ontario’s public expertise and intellectual property with private enterprise. He said he was under the understanding that Drummond’s mandate was to look for more opportunities like this.
“This report is completely silent about this in the health field. I have a feeling some chunk of material probably hit the cutting room floor after Dec. 5 (when the ORNGE story broke),” he said.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Theresa Boyle
Michael Decter, who served as deputy in the former Bob Rae government and continues to be a leading Canadian expert on health systems, told an audience of senior health officials Tuesday that the scandal at Ontario’s air ambulance service is making it difficult for the province to ask the health sector to cough up millions in savings.
“In my view it couldn’t have come at a worse time for the sector,” Decter said, noting that Don Drummond’s recommendations on paying down the $16 billion deficit were released earlier this month, just two months after the Star first broke the story about improprieties at ORNGE.
The different players in the sector can be adversarial, Decter said, referring to the fact that hospitals, doctors, community agencies and others often compete for funding and authority.
While they have been known to put their differences aside and work for the common good during tough times in the past, this time it’s different, he told about 300 people at a Breakfast with the Chiefs event at St. Michael’s Hospital, a speakers’ series organized by Longwoods Publishing.
“Getting any change made requires getting some moral authority that we have to do things together. The problem with ORNGE is that everyone in this room and everyone out there in the health sector is going to say, ‘That $25 million, that is the money I needed to run my program.’ ”
Decter was referring to $25 million unaccounted for after $275 million was raised by ORNGE with taxpayers’ help.
“It really undercuts the credibility of not just the minister but the government at a really bad time. We really are getting into difficult economic times,” he said.
Decter said the ORNGE scandal likely caused the Drummond report to undergo major last-minute editing.
He explained that when ORNGE was originally created, it represented a new way of doing things, by leveraging Ontario’s public expertise and intellectual property with private enterprise. He said he was under the understanding that Drummond’s mandate was to look for more opportunities like this.
“This report is completely silent about this in the health field. I have a feeling some chunk of material probably hit the cutting room floor after Dec. 5 (when the ORNGE story broke),” he said.
Original Article
Source: Star
Author: Theresa Boyle
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