Moyra Haney was a CPC representative at this conference on building and improving the public health system. It was held November 2, 2007 at Ryerson University.
Seven workshops were offered of which a delegate could select three. Ms. Haney's choices were: Revisioning best practices in hospitals; Homecare after the Caplan Report; Beyond the status quo - towards democracy and accountability.

For well over a decade provincial health policy has been focused on reducing the size of hospitals. Hospitals have been seen as too expensive or as dehumanizing institutions. This session at-tempted to develop another analysis and another approach. What can a renewed, modern and vibrant role for hospitals be? What can and should be best practices in governance, accountability, accessibility and public non-profit service provision?

Ross Sutherland, a practicing registered nurse and a member of the Kingston Health Coalition, presented research on laboratory reform and privatization which he did for his master's thesis. He compared the for-profit lab costs (40 to 50 percent profit) with the not-for-profit in conjunction with the On-tario Medical Laboratory Association information.

Natalie Mehra, Director of the OHC, pointed out that for several years the OHC has been at the fore-front of policy debate, advocating for greater democracy and accountability in hospitals. She pre-sented a vision for improving hospital democracy and governance. She stressed that the removal of community input as a result of the Harris' government re-structuring, the closure of more than 30 hospitals and the LHIN Legislation has resulted in no accountability to the community and undemocratic/secret hospital board meetings. An action plan needs to be developed for a trans-parent process with public accountability.

In the last year Community Care Access Centres (CCAC) have been restructured, the government has announced a major investment of $700 million into home support but homecare tenders have remained on hold. In the current context, can we build a common vision of restored public, non-profit homecare? What would this look like and how do we achieve it?

Evelyn Shapiro, University of Manitoba, was assistant Deputy Minister in the Manitoba government in the 1970's and was charged with implementing public homecare. She talked about her experience and how it relates to Ontario after the Caplan Report

Rick Janson, from the Ontario Public Service Employees' Union, announced that all contracts were about to expire.

Beyond the status quo -towards democracy and accountability What does democratizing the health system mean for public Medicare? What media reform, if any, should we be calling for? What can public auditing do to strengthen public Medicare? What kind of tax and spending policies should we be supporting to achieve financial sustainability?

Judy Rebrick, well-known social activist and author, talked about democratizing the health care system.

Lewis Auerbach, former director of the Auditor-General's Office of Ontario, spoke on how to improve auditing for democratic governance and accountability in the health system. He emphasized lower costs, accountability, quality service and commercial confidentiality versus patient safety.

This conference was a huge learning curve for me and opened my eyes to the challenges we citizens face in making change to the health care system.