11 patients were infected with hepatitis C at three Toronto colonoscopy clinics since 2011
Bernard Weil
/ Toronto Star
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Health Minister Eric Hoskins says he’s looking to “identify new tools that can help us continue to protect patient safety.”
Where are the tweets? The online postings? The news releases?
After a hepatitis C
outbreak at three Toronto colonoscopy clinics infected 11 people since
2011, you’d think the health of patients would be the top priority for
the government — as well as for the organizations charged with acting on
infectious disease control and inspecting clinics.
And you’d think their
first line of defence would be to warn the public – and other clinics –
about the outbreaks, while they acted to ensure there wouldn’t be
further infections.
But silence and secrecy over a 21-month period when others were becoming infected was — and is — the order of the day.
As reported over the weekend by Theresa Boyle, Toronto Public Health had to be pressured by the Star before it would even acknowledge the outbreaks.
Meanwhile, the College
of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, which inspects the clinics, is
not informing the public of the outbreaks either.
As for Health Minister Eric Hoskins, he’s looking to “identify new tools that can help us continue to protect patient safety.”
New tools?
How about the ones he
already has at hand? He should be insisting on openness and transparency
from his own department, as well as the parties responsible for
protecting patient health at clinics.
While the three
parties to this appalling secrecy — who may be responsible for the
infection of other patients because there was no public alert or
transparency after the first outbreak of hepatitis C — are
finger-pointing and making excuses, people have become seriously ill.
Nine of the 11
patients infected with hep C have gone on to develop the disease,
placing them at risk of developing cirrhosis of the liver and liver
cancer.
Source: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/09/29/public_must_be_informed_about_disease_outbreaks_at_health_clinics_editorial.html
Source: http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/2014/09/29/public_must_be_informed_about_disease_outbreaks_at_health_clinics_editorial.html
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