On Thursday's GFB: September 20th

Sep 19, 2012

By Dale Goldhawk

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11:30am EST | Dr. Rob Bell, president of the UHN
12:15pm EST |Lynn Hargrove, director of Consumers Solutions, Symantec Canada

GUEST – Dr. Bob Bell, president of the University Health Network

TOPIC – Out-of-town cancer patients who stay at a lodge run by Princess Margaret Hospital are angry that nursing services there are being cut.

INFO -“I think it’s terrible. It doesn’t make sense. There are a lot of really sick people here,” said London, Ont., resident Dianne Milner, 64, who is battling leukemia.

Twelve nurses — nine full-time and three casual, part-time — have been given layoff notices. The hospital is trying to find jobs for them in different departments, but they also have the option of taking early retirement packages.

Cancer patients such as Milner argue that the services provided by the nurses at the Jarvis St. facility are vital. She recently underwent a bone-marrow transplant and must take medication through a picc-line infusion pump every 12 hours to keep a potentially deadly virus at bay.

But while sleeping at the lodge one night last week, she was awakened by an alarm signaling the pump had malfunctioned. She simply went down to the nurses’ station, where the device was fixed.

Milner said that if there had not been nurses there, she would have had to go to an emergency department.
‘I don’t know how you can run that place without nurses. They have made a huge difference to my recovery,” she said.
A letter recently sent to patients at the 104-bed facility said the decision to cut the nursing staff was made after an extensive review of the lodge’s operations.

“The main recommendation is to manage the lodge like a hotel to continue to provide accommodation and meals to out-of-town adult cancer patients,” wrote Marnie Escaf, senior vice president of the Princess Margaret Cancer Program.

“When the change occurs, there will no longer be nurses at the lodge and guests needing nursing care will be treated by their health team at the hospital they attend,” the letter continued.

Some administrative and housekeeping staff are also being cut.
Dr. Bob Bell, president of the University Health Network, which encompasses Princess Margaret, said the cuts have nothing to do with balancing the hospital’s budget. Rather, they are intended to address changing practice standards and better utilize resources.

Princess Margaret wants to beef up its ambulatory services and radiation clinic with more nurses, he said.
“It’s far more effective to concentrate resources in the hospital” where they can be used by patients from around the Greater Toronto Area as well as those who are from out of town, he said.

He noted that most patients staying at the lodge are there for daily radiation and pointed out that side effects such as pain are better managed these days than they once were.

Vicki McKenna, vice president of the Ontario Nurses’ Association, called the changes short-sighted.

“Some of these patients will end up in the ER and being admitted to hospital,” she said.
The 54-year-old facility provides 22,000 room nights per year, almost half to patients and the rest to the family members. A nominal price is charged. Patients are treated at both Princess Margaret and Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

McKenna said many come alone and rely on the nurses to look out for them.
“Can you imagine having what feels like the worst flu in your life and knowing no one? They are often weak and unsteady.” www.thestar.com

GUEST – Lynn Hargrove, director of Consumers Solutions, Symantec Canada

TOPIC – Consumer Cybercrime Costs Canadians C$1.4 Billion Cost per Victim Goes Down; Social and Mobile Incidents on the Rise.

INFO – TORONTO, Sept. 5, 2012 /CNW/ – Norton by Symantec (NASDAQ: SYMC) today released the findings of its annual Norton Cybercrime Report, one of the world’s largest consumer cybercrime studies. The study is aimed at understanding how cybercrime affects real people in real ways, and how the adoption and evolution of new technologies impacts people’s security. With findings based on self-reported experiences of more than 13,000 adults across 24 countries, the 2012 edition of the Norton Cybercrime Report calculates the direct costsi associated with global consumer cybercrime at US $110 billionii over the past twelve months. In Canada it is estimated that more than 46 per cent of people fell victim to cybercrime in the past twelve months, suffering on average C$169 each in direct financial losses. That number is US$197 globally

SOURCE: NORTON BY SYMANTEC

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