Latest news with #LHSC
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Program that helps cancer patients stop smoking available at LHSC
From left: Jennifer Murray (Nurse Practitioner, Cancer Care), Catherine Bond-Mills (Pharmacist, Pharmacy – Oncology and Renal), and Spencer Martin (Manager, Pharmacy – Oncology and Renal) in the Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre Smoking Treatment for Ontario Patients (STOP) is a program offered by the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) which helps patients stop smoking. The program is now being offered in London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) to patients with head and neck cancers - although they already have a positive cancer diagnosis, it's important for those patients to quit smoking as it can improve outcomes. '[Smoking cessation] should be a high-priority intervention. We know it can take numerous attempts at quitting before patients can break the habit, and we also know that nicotine replacement therapy can double the chances of someone quitting successfully,' explained Jennifer Murray, Nurse Practitioner, Cancer Care at LHSC. 'Follow-up is critical in supporting patients in their goals given the chronic and relapsing patterns of tobacco addiction. With the STOP program, patients can now be connected to counselling surrounding their nicotine use and access nicotine replacement products.' Head and neck cancers include mouth, throat and voice box, but does not include brain, esophageal or lung cancers. Murray supports patients at LHSC's Verspeeten Family Cancer Centre, and will identify patients that are smoking and interested in quitting. The program includes the provision of nicotine replacement therapy like patches, gum or losenges, as well as counselling - providing up to 26 weeks of services free of charge. The program is more than counselling, it requires the support of several healthcare workers, 'Pharmacists play a critical role by offering personalized smoking cessation counselling, assessing patient readiness to quit and helping develop tailored plans to quit,' said Interim Pharmacy Manager Spencer Martin, who cares for patients in oncology and renal medicines at LHSC. 'The STOP program allows us to take a more proactive role in a patient's smoking cessation journey – a critical, but often under addressed aspect of patient care in cancer populations.'
CTV News
6 days ago
- Health
- CTV News
‘I've gotten my life back': London, Ont., neurosurgeon transforming the way Ontarians deal with back pain
Dr. Neil Duggal, Neurosurgeon at LHSC, demonstrates the endoscopic procedure using a spine model, alongside operating room Charge Nurse, Nicole Emery and Registered Nurse, Judy Hong in London, Ont. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London) A new procedure being performed at London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is helping patients to recover quicker, using a less painful path. For patients who suffer from spinal disorders, the pain can be debilitating. That was the case for Dr. Robyn Klein, who suffered from a herniated disc last December. 'Intense shooting pain all the way down my leg, into my foot, it was unbearable. I couldn't walk, I could barely sit, I could do nothing,' said Dr. Klein. The neuro-infectious disease specialist and scientist with Western University was fortunate a spot was available for her to have spinal endoscopic surgery performed by Neurosurgeon Dr. Neil Duggal this past April. Spinal surgery lhsc London Ont Dr. Neil Duggal, Neurosurgeon at LHSC with spinal endoscopic surgery patient, Dr. Robyn Klein inside University Hospital in London, Ont. (Reta Ismail/CTV News London) 'This procedure is using a very small incision that splits the muscle, and it has water going through it with a scope, and by doing that, it has less bleeding and so therefore less scarring around the nerves,' explained Dr. Duggal. LHSC is the first hospital in Ontario to have performed this new procedure. And Dr. Klein is one of only six patients to have this surgery performed at LHSC. 'I've gotten my life back. I'm doing everything that I was doing before. I still have some soreness and some stiffness, and obviously now, I'm really sore from all the exercise doing, but that's good soreness, not what I had before,' said an enthusiastic Dr. Klein. Surgeons use a slender, tube-like camera called an endoscope to visualize the spine through small incisions. The surgical procedure offers the most minimally invasive approach to treating conditions, such as herniated discs and other degenerative disc diseases. Dr. Duggal is passionate about innovation and minimally invasive techniques and said using cutting-edge technology to provide the most current surgical techniques for patients in Southwestern Ontario will help shorten a lengthy waitlist of spinal surgery patients. 'This procedure, for example, will hopefully result in fewer hospital admissions and such that we can do more cases and work our way through the waitlist,' explained Dr. Duggal. The new procedure represents an important advancement in care that is transforming the way patients deal with back pain across Ontario.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
'I am a human being with medically documented disabilities, not a policy problem': Hospital Torments Man With Suicide Talk
Hospital staff have repeatedly pushed a disabled Canadian man to accept euthanasia. Now, he says, they are repeatedly asking him about suicide while cutting off basic needs like food and water. 'I'm doing my best to hang in, but I truly don't know how much longer my body can hold on,' patient Roger Foley wrote in a message to The Dallas Express. 'I think that there is no hope.' Patient Roger Foley has spinocerebellar ataxia, a neurological disease that makes movement extremely difficult. Foley requires a medical lift to perform basic tasks like eating, drinking, and taking medication. Since Canada's universal healthcare system limits his medical options, he has been at the hospital for nine years. The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) staff previously withheld food and water and pushed 'medical assistance in dying' (MAID) – another term for euthanasia – on Foley, according to The Federalist. He said the hospital stopped asking him about this for several years. But since the end of April, Foley told The Dallas Express, staff have started bringing up suicide 'almost every night.' He also said since he does not consent to bright lighting during treatment – which he says aggravates his neurological symptoms – the hospital again cut off food, water, medicine, and toileting. At the time of publication, Foley said he was on an IV and growing weak. The Dallas Express asked LHSC for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. Foley said he has been surviving on IV fluids for more than two weeks. He said he fears 'if this situation continues, I will die.' 'This has become a matter of survival,' Foley wrote in a recent email to hospital staff, obtained by The Dallas Express. 'I am deteriorating.' Pushing Suicide Questions In recent weeks, Foley told The Dallas Express, staff have been coming by his room 'almost every night' to discuss suicide. '[T]he hospital has not stopped and i [sic] am being harassed all the time and staff won't leave me alone,' Foley wrote in an email. 'I tell them not to ask me those questions.' Foley told The Dallas Express that the staff have asked him suicide questions during routine tasks like bloodwork. He provided recordings of recent interactions with staff to The Dallas Express, eight of which mention suicide. In many of these recordings, nurses enter Foley's room to ask him about a suicide assessment, and he rebuffs them. 'I have repeatedly ask [sic] to not ask me any questions about suicide but the hospital ignores me,' he said. 'I do not want to die, I want to live.' Foley said one instance took place on May 4 at 3:45 a.m. He shared a recording of the interaction with The Dallas Express. JoshZynomirski(Nurse)-ForcesSuicideQuestionsOnRoger-May4th2025At330AM 'Rog, there's just a quick question,' a staff member said. 'Don't ask me if it has anything to do with suicide,' Foley replied. 'The hospital is not to ask me ever about suicide… Do not ask. Do not ask… How many times do I have to tell the hospital?' The staff member continued to push the question. 'Wait Rog, just to make sure, you're refusing …,' the staff member insisted. 'I'm just saying, do you refuse?' 'This has to stop… Just don't ask me,' Foley said. In another recording, he asks Doctor Jaspal Dulay why staff are engaging in 'harassment about the suicide questions.' Dulay replied that Foley 'normally would be high up on concerns around your mental health because of what's going on with your care. You made it clear you're feeling at harm.' DrDulayRefusesToStopSuicideQuestions-May16th2025At926AM Foley asked Dulay if the staff would 'keep on doing the harassment about that.' 'I deny that we're harassing you,' Dulay said. 'You're saying it, I'm saying we're not harassing you.' The Dallas Express contacted Dulay but did not hear back in time for publication. Michael Alexander, an attorney who provides legal advice to Foley, told The Dallas Express that Canada's euthanasia law leaves room for hospital staff to ask questions about suicide. But he said they are bringing it up beyond reason. 'It's not just one nurse doing this, it's become a pattern of conduct on the part of hospital personnel,' Alexander said. 'They're clearly in the wrong.' Alex Schadenberg, executive director of Canada's Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, told The Dallas Express that Foley goes through 'a lot of emotional grief' and has felt suicidal, but hospital workers' continual questions about suicide could be considered pressure. 'It's almost like they're harassing him because it's one thing to say, 'We're concerned about your mental health,' it's another thing to have someone tell you, 'Please stop bringing up suicidality,'' Schadenberg said. 'To have them bringing it up anyway – even if there's some other intention behind it – it seems to me that it's becoming a bit of a coercion situation where he's feeling pressured.' 'You Don't Want Any Care' The hospital recently began requiring brighter lighting when interacting with Foley. He said his disability makes him extremely photosensitive, as bright lights cause him 'extreme pain, temporary blindness, visual scaring [sic] afterwards of blue and purple markings on my vision, and severe pain,' he wrote in an email. The hospital had been using a dim, orange lamp when treating Foley for years, but recently issued a lighting assessment — obtained by The Dallas Express – that requires brighter lighting when interacting with him. He said staff usually come in at all hours of the day and night, so this bright lighting is a frequent occurrence. Hospital staff reportedly cut off Foley's food, water, medications, and toileting when they began requiring brighter lighting on May 7, he said to The Dallas Express. He said he is still 'cut off,' though one nurse helped with these tasks on May 23 by providing ski goggles and reducing the lighting. Foley said the next night, the staff refused to accommodate. 'So far, that one night of access has been the only one,' Foley wrote in an email. 'I'm still on IV fluids and now back to being completely blocked from basic needs. I'm extremely weak, but still trying.' Foley wrote in an email he 'can barely raise mt [sic] head' and fears acidosis – a buildup of acid in the body. He also said he fears for his life. 'They are witholding [sic] food and water, and everything. they won;t [sic] help me unless full lights that they know my eyes cannot tolerate,' he wrote in an email. According to Foley, the hospital recently made some adjustments, removing several lights and replacing others with dimmer bulbs. However, he expressed concern in an email to administrators that 'the hospital shows no urgency and continues to deny me proper accommodation, even if it leads to my death.' He also said that since then, 'the hospital added an additional bright halogen.' 'Staff forcibly waking me, turning on harmful lighting without warning, asking suicide questions, and ignoring available alternatives is not safe or respectful — it is negligent,' Foley wrote officials in an email. 'I am not refusing care — I am being denied the ability to access it due to an environment made hostile by the S[tandard] O[perating] P[rocedure] you enforce.' A History Of Pushing Euthanasia Canada's universal healthcare system limits Foley's medical choices to a home care provider or the hospital. Foley said he first used an in-home care provider, but poor treatment left him suicidal at the time. He was denied the universal healthcare system's self-directed care program, which would allow him to hire his own home care staff. So nine years ago, he opted for care at LHSC, and has been there ever since. Foley has struggled with suicidal thoughts, so early on in his time at the hospital, he requested euthanasia – also known as MAID, according to The Federalist. He soon overcame these thoughts and canceled the appointment. However, hospital staff repeatedly pressured Foley to accept MAID from 2016 to 2018. He provided a recording of one interaction from 2018 with The Dallas Express, in which a staff member suggested ending his life. SamualBodden(nurse)LHSC-PitchingRogerToHaveAssistedDeath-Jan21st2018 'How are you feeling, Rog? Are you feeling like you want to harm yourself or anything like that?' the staff member asks. 'If you were, you could just apply to get an assisted – you don't have to do it in some dramatic manner, you can apply for assisted, you know.' Foley also told The Dallas Express that Doctor Robert Sibbald, the hospital's ethicist who suggested harvesting organs from euthanasia patients before they are dead according to The Federalist, pushed euthanasia on him in 2017. At the time, The Federalist published a partial recording of the interaction. The Dallas Express asked Sibbald for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. LHSC cut off Foley's access to the medical lift in 2018. According to The Federalist, an opinion from an outside doctor that year concluded the hospital's 'care fell substantially below standard for failing to meet Foley's nutritional and hydration needs during the period in question.' The LHSC also allegedly moved Foley into a ward with 'intense lighting' in May 2020, according to a complaint he filed with the hospital. 'At that time, I was confined to an intravenous drip and forced to cover my face with soft pillowcases to block the harmful light,' Foley wrote in the complaint. Alexander told The Dallas Express that Canadian doctors have been known to push euthanasia or withdraw treatment early. 'There are some public hospitals in Canada that will nudge a vulnerable patient towards death by compromising the basic rudiments of treatment,' he said. Foley is currently representing himself in a lawsuit against LHSC for its treatment, and Alexander said he is approaching a major deadline to submit case materials. 'Let me survive long enough to secure the direct funding home care I need to live and do legal work,' Foley wrote officials in an email. Schadenberg told The Dallas Express that Foley is 'really in a bad place.' 'The hospital may not be intentionally saying it per se, but by making certain decisions, they seem to be saying they want him out of there,' he said. Schadenberg suggested a simple solution: give Foley 'self-directed care.' This would allow him to leave the hospital and hire his own in-home caregivers. 'He's been turned down for that, and he's now in this very bad situation,' Schadenberg said. 'He can't live on his own, and he doesn't trust the care that he used to receive in the past.' In Canada, euthanasia is 'being normalized in a bigger and bigger way,' as many doctors 'simply see it as another form of medical treatment,' according to Schadenberg. 'They have totally divorced us from the reality of what it is, just killing somebody,' he said. He said the second main issue in Canada is the treatment of people with disabilities, whose 'needs are massively underfunded.' Schadenberg said disability entitlements have lagged behind post-COVID inflation, so people with disabilities are now 'massively underfunded.' In an email obtained by The Dallas Express, Foley pleaded with hospital officials to consider alternative care approaches. He called the current approach 'systemic neglect and discrimination.' 'I am a human being with medically documented disabilities, not a policy problem,' Foley wrote in an email to hospital officials, obtained by The Dallas Express. 'Stop this cruelty and work with me to survive.'
CBC
23-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
External review of LHSC shows hospital challenged by 'self imposed' problems
Social Sharing London's largest employer will need to make tough decisions as it continues to grapple with the fallout of years of instability, bloated management and growing need for medical care, a review of the organizational structure of the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) has found. The review, done by an outside healthcare consultant at the request of provincially-appointed supervisor David Musyj, paints a bleak picture of the region's largest hospital — an organization that lags behind similar centres in its use of technology, faces a $150 million operating deficit, and has been embroiled in scandal and "massive" leadership turnover in the last decade. "LHSC is currently in a very difficult financial position and faces significant operating challenges every day. While all hospitals in Ontario are facing similar challenges, LHSC's circumstances are particularly complex," the consultant, BIG Healthcare, wrote in its report, which was released to staff earlier this week and includes 169 recommendations for how to improve the hospital's finances in the next three years. The report was not publicly released but a copy was obtained by CBC News. Hospital executives would not comment on the review because they're still sharing the findings internally, a spokesperson wrote in an email. The review was being done at the same time as a management restructuring, which "corrected excessive growth in management that has occurred at LHSC over the last four years," the consultant wrote. That restructuring has seen the elimination of 74 management positions, and 71 leaders being reassigned. It resulted in a $14M savings. LHSC interim CEO says executive job cuts won't affect patient care 9 months ago Duration 1:00 In the last decade, the report noted, the hospital, which includes Victoria and University hospitals, has had six different CEOs, six different CFOs, and 41 different executives. "Each new administration brought new structures, spending and priorities," the consultant noted. "The amount of service available in the region has not kept up with demand," the report states. Continued population growth means there will be "overwhelming demand for services in the future," but the hospital's spaces are at older and at capacity, with no room to grow or expand. "LHSC feels 'full' all the time because more people than ever are relying on it for care and there are fewer places than in the past that take patients who no longer require the acute level care provided at LHSC. This will be an ongoing challenge," the report states. "However, some of the difficult operating challenges LHSC faces are self-imposed: a result of its own choices and actions over the years." The hospital has hired a large number of people in the last four years, but "growth in staffing has been disproportionate to growth in service," the report states, and has been done without coordination. ""LHSC is using more staff and more hours of work to provide the same care peer hospitals do" 'They've lost trust' The hospital also doesn't designate patients who no longer need acute care accurately, which has "masked the extent of the capacity and flow challenges," that it faces, the report states. Efforts are underway to restart a relationship with St. Joseph's Health Care so surgeries and other medical care can be delivered more efficiently. Simplifying team structures, clarifying roles and expectations, reducing duplication and improving how work gets done will allow the hospital to provide more care without increasing staffing, the consultant said. Some of the recommendations sound like plans from decades past that tried to make the hospital system more efficient, said Peter Bergmanis, head of the London Health Coalition, who has advocated for the health care system for more than three decades. "It's tinkering at the edges again. Ultimately, a lot of this is out of the hands of the hospital administration and we know that LHSC is just a part of a bigger picture of underfunding of healthcare," he said. "We spent so much money in London 20 years ago to coordinate and re-organize and consolidate and amalgamate hospital staffing, and now here we are again." The hospital must do a capacity audit to see what the communities it serves needs, which will likely mean a demand for hundreds more beds, he added, which would boost moral of the staff. "They've lost all the trust. It's unbelievably frustrating for the staff." The hospital's dual responsibility as a major tertiary centre and a community hospital is unique, and it's one of the biggest and most complex multi-site academic health centres in the province, the report states. It also has a relatively young work force and hasn't paid enough attention to financial performance, according to the report. "The organization is data rich but has been information poor with regards to management decision making," the consultant wrote. A look at some of the 169 recommendations Doctors need to work more closely with administrators to review clinical results Individual doctors' admission rates and average length-of-stay should be monitored and reported Pause current spending on leadership development Review policies on the use of expensive drugs for rare diseases, with a focus on "optimizing patient access to those medications outside of the regular hospital drug budget" Have explicit discharge targets so most patients are discharged before noon, and include medical imaging (for example x-rays, ultra sounds or MRIs) in discharge planning Increase the number of patients that can be discharged to their own homes, and analyze why people are getting readmitted because LHSC has a high readmission rate All psychiatric admissions should have a care plan with an estimated date of discharge Mental health services should be 24/7 so patients admitted on weekends are seen by a psychiatrist. Call discharged mental health patients within 48 hours for a follow-up Stop investing and maintaining buildings that are not operationally active Create a surgical short-stay unit for people who have admissions that are less than 36 hours, and do more same-day surgeries so people with less than 24 hours in hospital don't have to be admitted Partner with long-term care homes so residents don't have to go to the emergency room, and leverage family medicine clinics to provide care for people without a family doctor who were see in in the ER Work to recover costs for non-OHIP funded births and switch to translation technology instead of in-person translation services in the birthing centre
CTV News
22-05-2025
- CTV News
LHSC has intercepted more than 200 weapons thanks to AI technology
Security officer Jon Jones and LHSC supervisor David Musyj in London, Ont., on Monday April 14, 2025. (Sean Irvine/CTV News London)
