Call For Investigation As C.difficile Death Toll Rises

Nearly 200 people across the province have lost their lives to a hospital-acquired bacterium and the rising death toll has renewed calls for mandatory reporting of the potentially deadly bug in health care facilities.

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader John Tory would like to see an independent investigation into the outbreak of C. difficile in hospitals and long-term care facilities across the province.

Hospitals in Kitchener, Cambridge, Oakville and Simcoe have all reported 30 or more new deaths from the bacterium. Some facilities have voluntarily disclosed that information but Tory wants the government to mandate reporting.

C. difficile causes diarrhea and other intestinal problems such as colitis. According to Health Canada, the bug is the most common cause of infectious diarrhea in hospitalized patients in the industrialized world. To learn more, click here.

Provincial Health Minister George Smitherman dismissed Tory’s call and said the government is already doing enough to deal with the outbreak. The Liberals have already implemented recommendations outlined in a coroner’s inquest into 26 C. difficile-related deaths.

“We’re going to add to those steps that we’ve already taken … The Infectious Disease Advisory Committee, the infection disease networks in each of our health integration networks putting additional networks that deal with infectious disease with a very, very forceful regime of mandatory reporting not only on C. difficile but on a variety of other challenges in the hospital environment which affect patient safety,” Smitherman said Monday.