Hopefully a Light at the End of the Tunnel? – A commentary on an article from the Globe and Mail, Monday, July 13, 2015.

Reflections on Home Care and Community Clinics as depicted in the Globe article.

All too often the principals who form and control the organizations providing the type of care discussed, have been awarded government contracts to render these services, as rewards for working on political campaigns donating funds to parties and actively aiding politicians to become elected.

The result – the care provided is generally third rate and in many instances, may be counterproductive to the objective intended. Whereas bureaucrats state that these programs save millions of dollars in health care; in essence, more frequently they prolong existing problems at a prohibitive cost. In too many instances, those who propose to render this “high quality care?”, have minimal understanding of the medical aspects of these clinical problems and how to resolve them.

Although I have not directly investigated these organizations as time does not permit, patients that present who have been treated by these groups have seldom been well served and indeed in too many instances, their lesions have become more extensive over prolonged courses of treatment.

One might conclude that this is simply another example of politicians rewarding their friends with lucrative financial contracts and making a mockery of Canadian health care with regard to patient focus.

There is a great deal more to wound care for example than periodic debridement, dressing changes, etc. and often these archaic methods perpetuate an increase in the dimension of these lesions until the limb is amputated or the patient expires.

Quality care unfortunately requires understanding of the pathology, a thorough and careful individual assessment and properly directed therapy, not budgets and outmoded methodologies, which in the long-term are much more expensive than focusing on the problem and resolving it in a meaningful, appropriate fashion.

read the full article here: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/ontario-shifting-home-care-to-private-clinics-as-province-seeks-savings/article25476203/