Health department facing fourth year of frozen funding
After three years of frozen provincial funding, Niagara’s Public Health Department expects more of the same in the year to come.
And after doing their best coping with the limited funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, public health department staff have finally reached the point where they are forced to reduce their workforce.
“We have been budget- ing for zero (per cent increases) from the province again, for four years in a row,” said Niagara medical officer of health Dr. Valerie Jaeger.
“This is the first year that Niagara will be decreasing staff, going into 2018.”
The health department’s base funding from the province has been limited to about $23.5 million per year since 2015.
Although there has been some program-specific funding allocations, such as about $250,000 to help pay for opioid mitigation strategies, the base funding provided by the province hasn’t even included cost of living increases.
“If you don’t get 1.8 per cent every year, after a while that looks like 1.8 per cent of your people,” Jaeger said. “The absolute last thing that I will do is ever lose a staff position, so we work very hard to prevent that, but zero is not zero when facing the cost of living.
“Zero is actually a negative.” She said the result is a reduction in staff hours that amounts to 2.6 full-time equivalent staff positions from the workforce of about 268 public health staff. “We took an intense overall look at how best we can serve the people in Niagara, and we were looking at the questions of who needs it most and where do they need us the most, and when do they need us the most,” she said.
“We looked at things like altering clinic hours to suit the hours of our clients. We certainly did a lot of use of increased technology. We changed modes of delivery from some individual one-on-one education sessions to more group classes. Interestingly for new moms, they like those better.”
She said the health department has also strengthened its relationship with partners, such as community health centres.
Jaeger presented a report about the funding limits at a public health committee meeting Tuesday.
“It’s really disturbing to know that we’re not even keeping up with inflation,” said Niagara Falls Coun. Selina Volpatti.
“Our mandate remains the same, but the money we have to fulfil the mandate is not there. It’s so stagnant that it’s making us unable to accomplish what we should be doing.”
Welland Coun. George Marshall made a motion to notify local MPPs about the funding limits the health department is facing.
Pelham Mayor Dave Augustyn wanted to ensure letters to area MPPs say emphatically that: “We’ve cut to the bone and now we’re cutting bone.”
Jaeger said public health departments across Ontario receive less than 1.8 per cent of overall healthcare funding.
“The amount of money going to public health is a very small percentage of the overall health budget and if we ever want to get a handle on the chronic diseases that affect our society, I think public health deserves to get more funding,” she said.
Long term, however, she said underfunding public health services now will lead to higher costs among acute health care in years to come.
“I think public health would benefit from friends in the public who would advocate on our behalf,” Jaeger said. “I think the ministry and the government is more likely to listen when other people advocate for you rather than just making noise yourself.”