Home and community care to get $2B boost

Ontario is earmarking an extra $2 billion to expand home and community care over the next three years as the population ages and employers struggle to recruit workers in a traditionally low-paid sector.

But critics said Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy’s budget doesn’t put enough new cash into the health-care system to shorten long emergency room wait times or help enough Ontarians find a family doctor.

The infusion for home care is on top of the Ford government’s $1 billion boost two years ago to “stabilize” the workforce and provide more services to seniors growing older in their own homes with the help of personal support workers, nurses and others.

Bethlenfalvy’s additional funding will bolster assisted living and meal services, transportation and to strengthen day programs for seniors.

“I don’t know too many people who don’t want to age at home with their loved ones and familiar surroundings,” Bethlenfalvy said at a news conference.

“A big chunk of this money is going to be supporting the wages and recruiting and retaining more health-care workers.”

The association representing home-care providers hailed the “historic investment.”

“This increased funding will help ensure more Ontarians can get the health care they require in the most appropriate setting — at home,” said Sue VanderBent, chief executive of Home Care Ontario.

The fiscal blueprint also increases funding to help more Ontarians find a family doctor, boosts payments to hospitals, provides cash to fast-track nursing home construction and increases travel grants for people in northern Ontario, who often have to travel longer distances for important medical appointments and treatments.

With more than 2.3 million Ontarians unable to find a family physician amid a doctor shortage, the government estimates the $546 million set aside to expand primary care teams will help 600,000 people make a primary care connection.

That will leave at least 1.7 million people in the lurch, opposition parties said.

“Primary care funding is not enough to meet the current need,” New Democrat Leader Marit Stiles told reporters.

The primary care team model is intended to provide doctors with more administrative supports and other care providers such as nurses and other health-care professionals so they have more time with patients.

That $546 million includes $110 million announced by Health Minister Sylvia Jones last month for 78 new and expanded teams, including in Sault Ste. Marie where a major clinic is cutting 10,000 of its patients loose at the end of May because their doctors have retired or quit.

The Ontario Medical Association says Ontario is short 2,500 doctors and has warned 40 per cent of physicians now working are considering retirement in the next five years.

Liberal Leader Bonnie Crombie noted the overall health-care budget is rising “only” $500 million to $85 billion in the fiscal year beginning April 1.

The increase is “shortchanging our public health system,” she charged.

Crombie said hospitals are in “crisis” in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and scrambling to keep pace with Ontario’s rapidly increasing population while coping with staff shortages caused by the government’s ill-fated Bill 124 public sector wage restraint legislation.

Hospitals are getting an extra $965 million for the year, which includes a four per cent increase in base funding.

To help fast-track the building or redevelopment of nursing homes as thousands of seniors languish on waiting lists for beds, the budget provides $155 million to increase construction funding subsidies.

Also for seniors, about 100,000 more with low incomes will be eligible for the guaranteed annual income program, with benefits to be indexed to inflation.

For residents of northern Ontario, the budget boosts the health travel grant program by $45 million over three years, promising “enhanced supports” including an extra $75 per night for the accommodation allowance.

That’s up from $100 per night now under the program, which also pays northern residents 41 cents per kilometre after the first 100 kilometres.