By 2027 the PC health care funding plan falls $21.3 billion short, their hospital bed plan falls 500 beds short, their plan to free up hospital capacity by moving hospital patents to long-term care is unlikely to work, and their nurse and PSW staffing plan will fall 33,000 short according to the Financial Accountability Office ( FAO ). Important and appalling news. But the human problems are actually much worse. The FAO focuses on measuring the gap between the government's stated plans and the government’s stated aspirations. The bigger -- and much more important -- problem is that the government aspirations fall so very far short of actual human needs. So, on staffing, the FAO makes no claim that government aspirations are adequate to human need. Indeed, their staffing projections do “not reflect an assessment about the quality of services that should be provided by these programs.” As a result, the FAO estimates the government aims to add 1,000 hospital beds between now and
Actual provincial program spending is much less than "planned" Provincial Spending was $6.4 billion less than planned over the first 9 months of the fiscal year 2022/3 according to the Financial Accountability Office (FAO). That is 5.0% less than budgeted. After the first half of the year, the FAO had reported that the government had underspent its budget by 4.1% ($3.5 billion). Health was underspent by $1.25 billion – or 2.3% less than planned. This is an increase from an underspend of $859 million reported by the FAO after the first half of the year. The news of the $1.25 billion underspend on health comes just as the province scooped up another $776 million from the federal government for health care to deal with urgent health needs like the hospital crisis. But, instead of dealing with urgent hospital needs, it looks like the province will bank the cheque and underspend the health budget it set last March. Despite the health underspend, the for-profit clinic