Hospitals in Ontario have burned through $2 billion in the last four years to deal with the ongoing capacity crisis and lack of funding.
That’s according to Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.
Hurley and CUPE National researcher Doug Allan presented PUSHED OVER THE BRINK: THE ESCALATING ASSAULT ON ONTARIO’S HOSPITALS, a new report on the crisis Friday morning at Stratford Rotary Complex.
The report shows that for the last two years, hospital funding has fallen two percent behind cost pressures across the province. This fiscal year sees funding plans fall almost three percent behind what’s needed to maintain services.
In an interview with MyStratfordNow, Hurley said most hospitals are in a negative financial position.
“The Huron-Perth hospitals have a working capital deficit of $39 million, and why this is alarming is because the working capital accounts are used to pay for staffing, drugs, and medical supplies so what these numbers reveal is a weakness in the funding for the hospitals. Last year, the hospitals in this region and across the province received a 2 percent cut in their funding.”
In response to decreases in provincial funding, hospitals compensate by using their cash reserves to keep things running, according to Hurley.
He says the aging population is driving up healthcare funding, adding the number of patients from the baby boomer generation needing acute hospital care is rising.
“The length of stay of many of the patients has increased because they’re much more acutely ill, and the volume of them has increased. In addition to that, the costs for things like drugs are up 12 percent, contracted out services like nursing agencies is up 9 percent. These costs are pushing hospital spending way over the normal rate of inflation.”
Based on its calculations, the Ontario Hospital Association says hospitals need a funding increase of 6.5 percent to maintain services at the current level, and an investment of more than $5 billion over three fiscal years to lower occupancy levels, get people off stretchers, and clear out surgical backlogs.
Hurley hopes the report serves as a wake up call for the province about current hospital conditions, and that they will be more responsive to the crisis.
