Andre Marin used his annual report yesterday to demand hospitals be brought under his oversight as Ontario's independent public watchdog.

"What is the hesitancy? One (explanation) is fundamentally that they're trying to contain perhaps an embarrassing situation," Marin told reporters.

Marin is the only provincial ombudsman without the power to investigate hospitals and long-term care facilities. He has said his office would be well-positioned to handle an investigation into C. difficile. An outbreak of the deadly superbug at Burlington's Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital claimed 62 lives over a 20-month period. At least 264 people with the disease have died at seven hospitals since 2006.

But Health Minister George Smitherman said an expansion of Marin's role was "not in the government's plans." More...