Overcrowded hospitals, inadequate resources for cleaning, kill thousands each year
Press Release from Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU)
Media Advisory: Overcrowded hospitals, inadequate resources for cleaning, kill thousands each year
Mobile hospital on northern Ontario tour to fight hospital-acquired infections in Sioux Lookout, Kenora, Fort Frances this week
SIOUX LOOKOUT, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 7, 2011) - Although medical experts are blaming hospital overcrowding (resulting from cuts to patient beds) for infection outbreaks – particularly outbreaks of antibiotic-resistant superbugs – the Ontario government plans to cut another 5,000 acute care beds province-wide. 16,000 hospital beds have been cut in the province of Ontario since 1995. Currently, hospital bed occupancy is at record levels, over 97 per cent.
Studies show that hospital-acquired infections kill between 8,000 and 12,000 Canadians a year. 42 per cent of these deaths, between 3,200 and 4,800, are in Ontario.
"As many as half of these deaths are preventable," says Sharon Richer, the northern Ontario vice-president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
To heighten awareness about the death toll from hospital-acquired infections and what could bring death rates down, Richer will join hospital staff who are members of CUPE at a media conference in Sioux Lookout on Wednesday, June 8 — 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon — at Sioux Lookout Recreation Centre (Gymnasium),
85 King Street, Sioux Lookout.
A mobile hospital room display will be set up as part of the media conference to demonstrate the effective and thorough cleaning required to kill antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Marc Lafrance, Francophone vice-president for OCHU, will also participate in the event.
| Media conference details for Kenora and Fort Frances are as follows: | ||
| Thursday, June 9, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon | ||
| Kenora Recreation Centre (Arena) | ||
| 200 Fifth Street South | ||
| Kenora, ON | ||
| Friday, June 10, 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 Noon | ||
| Fort Frances Public Library Technology Centre (Shaw Community Hub) | ||
| 601 Reid Avenue | ||
| Fort Frances, ON | ||