The cost of unneeded medical supplies has been estimated at almost $1.7 million annually
Jean-Marc Poey, an amputee and home-care patient in Eastern Ontario, was stunned when he received boxes upon boxes of medical supplies from his province’s home-care medical system – supplies that he doesn’t need. “In each box there are so many of these scissors and forceps and so on. Enough for an army,” he said.
According to a report from CBC News, Poey is just one of many home-care patients who are receiving unnecessary medical supplies from the Champlain Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), an agency in Ottawa that is funded by the Ontario government. While patients may wish to return supplies that they receive by mistake, the CCAC is prohibited from taking them back.
The rule that has the CCAC’s hands tied is meant to protect against redistributing supplies that have been given out already, which may be compromised or infected due to improper storage conditions, even if they’re sealed. Because of this rule, the CCAC estimates that almost $1.7 million worth of medical supplies are wasted every year.
Not Just Tourists, an aid group that donates medical supplies to countries in need, has been the recipient of these misallocations for several years; the contributions they pile up in the homes of volunteers, which serve as makeshift warehouses. “Unfortunately most of it would end up at landfill. And that is where most people are pointed to by different health people,” said Jacques Chenail, a volunteer coordinator for the group.
Not Just Tourists receives a mere 1% of the unused medical supplies in Eastern Ontario, Chenail estimates. He said that they’ve alerted senior healthcare administrators in Ontario for the need for a clearing house for unused supplies to be collected and sorted, but they don’t have the funding.
Joey Muise, the manager of supplies and equipment for the Champlain CCAC, was hired two and a half years ago to reduce inefficiency. “It's an excess amount of supplies and it's a large amount,” he admitted.
Under the current Ontario healthcare system, there are three ways supplies are ordered: by nurses visiting the clients, by CCAC coordinators, and by pharmacists working for the Medical Pharmacy Group, a company connected to Ontario Medical Supply (OMS); OMS is the private healthcare supplier that the CCAC currently has a contract with. Muise says that streamlining the ordering process through modernization may be the solution.
Related stories:
Man’s death highlights provincial home-care gap
Feds, provinces at loggerheads over health funding
According to a report from CBC News, Poey is just one of many home-care patients who are receiving unnecessary medical supplies from the Champlain Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), an agency in Ottawa that is funded by the Ontario government. While patients may wish to return supplies that they receive by mistake, the CCAC is prohibited from taking them back.
The rule that has the CCAC’s hands tied is meant to protect against redistributing supplies that have been given out already, which may be compromised or infected due to improper storage conditions, even if they’re sealed. Because of this rule, the CCAC estimates that almost $1.7 million worth of medical supplies are wasted every year.
Not Just Tourists, an aid group that donates medical supplies to countries in need, has been the recipient of these misallocations for several years; the contributions they pile up in the homes of volunteers, which serve as makeshift warehouses. “Unfortunately most of it would end up at landfill. And that is where most people are pointed to by different health people,” said Jacques Chenail, a volunteer coordinator for the group.
Not Just Tourists receives a mere 1% of the unused medical supplies in Eastern Ontario, Chenail estimates. He said that they’ve alerted senior healthcare administrators in Ontario for the need for a clearing house for unused supplies to be collected and sorted, but they don’t have the funding.
Joey Muise, the manager of supplies and equipment for the Champlain CCAC, was hired two and a half years ago to reduce inefficiency. “It's an excess amount of supplies and it's a large amount,” he admitted.
Under the current Ontario healthcare system, there are three ways supplies are ordered: by nurses visiting the clients, by CCAC coordinators, and by pharmacists working for the Medical Pharmacy Group, a company connected to Ontario Medical Supply (OMS); OMS is the private healthcare supplier that the CCAC currently has a contract with. Muise says that streamlining the ordering process through modernization may be the solution.
Related stories:
Man’s death highlights provincial home-care gap
Feds, provinces at loggerheads over health funding
