Hospitals ask for nearly $1B funding boost

TORONTO Ontario’s hospitals are asking for a nearly $1-billion increase in the upcoming provincial budget for their sector, after years of underfunding, in order to maintain services and ease overcrowding.

The Progressive Conservative government has pledged to end so-called hallway health care, and doing so requires other healthcare investments such as longterm care beds, the Ontario Hospital Association said in its recent pre-budget submission. The government has promised 15,000 new long-term care beds.

But those projects take time, and this is the level of funding needed to bridge the gap, said president and CEO Anthony Dale.

“We’re well aware of the magnitude of this investment, but it is necessary to address underlying inflationary pressures, increase service volumes and create capacity at the local level to ease hospital overcrowding,” Dale told the finance committee last week.

“Backs are truly against the wall. Without this investment in Ontario’s next budget you will see many hospitals facing some very difficult decisions. And this is a decision that no government and no hospital would ever want to face.”

The sector needs an investment of $922 million, which would be a 4.85-per-cent increase, Dale said.

Hospitals will otherwise have to make difficult decisions about the levels of service they can provide and their staffing levels, he said.

The Progressive Conservatives promised in the 2018 election to end hallway health care, but hospitals continue to face overcrowding.

A government-commissioned report a year ago found that on any given day at least 1,000 people are being treated in hospital hallways.

But a spokeswoman for Health Minister Christine Elliott said hallway health care is starting to decline.

“We are down six per cent or about 60 patients from where we were last year,” Alexandra Hilkene said in a statement.

She could not say if the OHA’S funding request would be met, as 2020-21 budgets are still being developed.