Code Red - Hamilton's Communities

Award winning investigative reporter and journalist of the year Steve Buist spoke about the series, "Code Red", which appeared in the Hamilton Spectator 18 months ago. Steve, along with data mapping expert Neil Johnson were able to gather over 400 000 pieces of data from Hamilton hospitals and examined the health information and death records in each of the city's 130 neighbourhoods. They found startling differences!

From the "best" neighbourhoods to the "worst" neighbourhoods the average age of death went from 86 years to 65.5 years. Similarly the number of emergency room visits went from 1291 per 1000 residents to 97 per 1000. High school drop out rate went from 267 per 1000 to 3 per 1000.

Best and worst were defined by socio-economic criteria and poorer neighbourhoods tended to be closer to hospitals. Individuals often are single parent, have poorer jobs, no vehicle, and no family doctor.

Steve closed with several observations. He indicated that the Ontario government tended to have plenty of money to fix health problems but very little to prevent problems from happening in the first place. For example, the government health plan would not cover anti-smoking medications to help get people off smoking, yet paid for a vast number of treatments once a person developed a smoking related problem. Similarly, only 15% of the cost of a school breakfast program is funded by the government, leaving the community school to find the rest, even though research shows that students who have a good breakfast are healthier, learn better and have better graduation results. Of course, breakfast programs are needed most in poorer communities.

The Code Red series is 18 months old but is still generating much interest as various groups try to understand how best to be of help.