Ontario hospitals on verge of financial crisis

TORONTO – Ontario Hospital Association president Anthony Dale (pictured) says costs in the hospital sector are rising at a rate of 6 percent annually, in part because of Ontario’s growing, aging and more medically complex population. At the same time, recent funding increases from the government of only 4 percent a year have created a “deepening structural deficit” of $1 billion.

Dale told CBC News that hospitals have dipped into their financial reserves, normally used for capital investments or to protect hospital finances, to fund everyday operations. And $500 million in cost savings found by hospitals are about as far as they can go without impacting patient care, he said.

That will lead to difficult conversations with the public about what they can expect when it comes to hospital services, and it may mean moving some services hospitals provide to other settings.

“These are all the kinds of tools that we’re using and working on to prepare for the future,” he said. “It’s just that this financial uncertainty is really impeding our ability to focus on that very, very significant objective.”

The president of the Ontario Medical Association said she is watching closely as the government prepares its budget. Her hope is that the province invests more in solutions to hallway healthcare, but also additional funding to help retain the province’s health-care workers.

“Hospitals can’t open more acute care beds without nurses, physicians and all the allied health professionals to staff them,” OMA president Dr. Zainab Abdurrahman said.

“We have to look at focusing on retention and recruitment strategies that align with real-time demand and population growth.”

Abdurrahman also expressed disappointment that the province intends to “retire” its tracking of hallway health care. The government quietly signaled the change earlier this year, which was first reported by The Trillium.

“We have to be transparent when you’re trying to build trust in a strained health-care system,” she said.

A spokesperson for health minister Sylvia Jones confirmed the tracking will end in favour of other data gathering for 21 new categories, including length of stay in an emergency room.

A vice president with the Canadian Emergency Physician Association said that organization is also watching Ontario’s budget process closely. More targeted spending in the budget to address hallway healthcare is needed and putting an end to tracking the problem won’t make it go away, Dr. Michael Herman said.

“I think you can have the numbers, but you can also have the experience of just being down there and seeing the chaos,” he said.

Herman said the association would like to see Ontario spend more on hospitals, but also long-term care beds and better homecare supports as part of the solution.

“I think there’s a very big concern that there just won’t be that ability to robustly invest in measures that will help eliminate [hallway health care] and I think it’s just a downward spiral,” he said.

Cameron Mackay, CEO of Home Care Ontario which represents home-care service providers across the province, says those agencies are ready to help address the pressure on hospitals. But to do that, they need the government to ensure personal support workers are paid competitive wages, he said.

“Home care is the antidote to overcrowding in hospitals and long-term care settings,” he said. “But we need to make sure that we have the staff in place to deliver that care.”