Minister endorses plan to temporarily shut Ottawa hospital operating rooms

A report from the Ottawa Citizen indicates that the Queensway-Carleton Hospital is considering cutting elective surgeries for up to 10 weeks beginning this summer to deal with a $2 million budget shortfall, .

Chief executive Tom Schonberg cautions that the plan is based on a worst-case scenario -a one per cent funding hike -and could change as hospital funding allocations become clearer over the next two months.

Health Minister Deb Matthews applauded the hospital. "The Queensway-Carleton Hospital is doing exactly what they should be doing. They're being responsible. They're developing a plan to work within their budget. ...(Not performing surgeries) when staff are on holidays -that seems like a reasonable strategy to me."

The McGuinty government has over the past two years delayed telling Ontario hospitals how much funding they would receive until June or July, well into the new fiscal year, which started on April 1. Even the province-wide 1.5% base funding increase is not guaranteed for any specific hospital, it seems.

At the Royal Ottawa Health Care Group, budget pressures are expected to lead to longer waits for outpatient services and in-patient beds.

The substance use and concurrent disorders clinic, for example, which already has a six-to eight-month waiting list for outpatients, could get longer, warned chief executive George Weber. So could the wait for a place in the 12-bed medical detoxification unit.

dallan@cupe.ca

Comments

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data. This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization. Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion. That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year. The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million. In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2.

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th

The hospital crisis: No capacity, no plan, no end

While Canada has achieved universal public healthcare coverage, that does not mean conservative forces have given up trying to erode that coverage and expand corporate care where it does not currently exist. The battle has become particularly intense in Ontario under the Ford Progressive Conservative government, which is implementing serious cuts to the level of care and moving to bring in for-profit mini-hospitals. Inadequate Staﬃng. Less and less of hospital spending is on staff. Employee compensation as a share of hospital expenditures has consistently shrunk in Ontario. This is not some immutable law of hospital development. It is in stark contrast with the rest of Canada, where compensation has become a larger share and now accounts for 67.1%. Hospitals in provinces other than Ontario now have 18 percent more staﬀ per capita than hospitals in Ontario. Overall, if Ontario had the same staﬃng capacity as the other provinces and territories, there would be another 33,778 full t

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog