Sudbury hospice director applauds Auditor General's report
The Auditor General's report this week has provoked mixed emotions in Sudbury.
The executive director of the Sudbury hospice is encouraged by recommendations on palliative care, but the director of the John Howard Society says the report won't help those in need of community programming.
The Auditor General wrote that the province is facing a serious shortage of palliative care.
In the report, Bonnie Lysyk recommended seven hospice beds per 100,000 people. Therrien says there is half that number in the northeast.
“The fact that the AG report came out with 30 pages on hospice-palliative care, and the need for more hospice-palliative care, certainly brings this topic to the forefront and will get people talking about it,” Therrien said.
As for her recommendation for the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care to better track who receives what kind of care, Therrien said those numbers are collected by various organizations.
“There's so many people involved in palliative care that we probably need more statistics about who dies where, and so on,” he said.
“I think it's been collected, [but] it may not end up in one place at the [government] level at this point.”
More rehabilitation services needed
John Rimore with the John Howard Society said the report won't fix the lack of funding for rehabilitation services.
Rimore noted 88 per cent of the ministry's funding goes into jails.
“I mean, we can say the money should be there, but the reality is there is economic restraint in the province of Ontario,” Rimore said.
“The reality is they're not going to close half the institutions or a third of the institutions because the Auditor General's report came out.”
Rimore said he expects the Ministry of the Attorney General to make further funding cuts in Sudbury in the new year.