Sunday, August 31, 2008

Another C. dif outbreak in Ontario: why aren't Liberals held willfully negligent?

The St. Catharines Standard reported on Aug.30, 2008, that St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario, has declared a C. difficile outbreak, announcing that they have 10 patients now very ill after having contracting the disease.

My MPP, Liberal Jim Bradley, still hasn’t answered any of the letters I sent him, which ask why his Liberal government has stonewalled Ontario’s ombudsman from investigating Ontario’s health-care system to determine the extent and causes of this on-going C. dif outbreak. McGuinty’s Liberals have downplayed and sloughed off this on-going outbreak as being under control. Had Bradley's government not been so ideological and obstructionist, and allowed the ombudsman to investigate, perhaps these latest cases could have been avoided.

[previous letters sent to, and ignored by, Liberal MPP Jim Bradley:
see: Stealth Minister Jim Bradley still hiding from health care scrutiny, July 30, 2008;
see: An Ombudsman 'C. diff' investigation would be kryptonite for McGuinty's Liberals, July 2, 2008;
see: Secretive Liberals hide from C. Diff accountability, July 4, 2008]

As more patients contract this illness while trapped in McGuinty’s Liberal health monopoly, Grits such as Jim Bradley ignore repeated requests from constituents for an immediate arm’s length investigation. The question needs to be asked: can these knowingly-ignorant Liberals be accused of negligence causing death? Have they truly done all that is possible to investigate the causes, and put in place demonstrable prevention protocols to show they are seriously trying to stop this? Is Liberal cabinet minister Jim Bradley going to pretend that somehow, he has no culpability or accountability here?!

We all remember how a smug Jim Bradley made political hay with his bluster about Walkerton – yet hundreds of patients have died from C. dif in Bradley’s government-run health monopoly, and this arrogant Liberal MPP continues to hide and refuses to answer questions.

Does this show responsibility? Or does it show shameful, willful political negligence?

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