Defend Public Healthcare

Hospitals typically benchmark against each other to determine care levels and efficiency.   But when Ontario hospitals are bench marked against hospitals in other provinces, a pattern clearly emerges – under-funding and under-capacity.   This post will loo at under-funding, a later one will look at under-capacity Provincial hospital funding per-capita is 28.3% higher in the rest of Canada than in Ontario — $404.09 more per person per year.   The gap between Ontario and the rest of Canada is a relatively new phenomenon.   For decades we were in lock-step with the rest of Canada.   We have fallen far behind since 2006. Provincial health care funding as a whole is 14% higher per person in the rest of Canada compared to Ontario.   That amounts to $561.08 higher per person, per year.   The gap in overall health care funding between Ontario and the rest of Canada developed at the same time as the gap for hospital funding developed.   Hospital under-funding accounts for almost t

Tens of thousands of new Long-Term Care (LTC) beds needed just to offset aging    The new Progressive Conservative government in Ontario has promised 30,000 new long-term care beds over the next ten years, often connecting this to their promise to end hospital hallway medicine.  But how does this promise stack up with growing demand for these facilities? Most people 85 and older live in collective dwellings (LTC facilities, seniors residences, multiple level of care facilities).  The setting with the largest number of elders 85 and older is LTC facilities, with about 35% of the  population  85 to 89  years old and almost 40% of the population 90 to 94 years. Older people are even more likely to be in a LTC facility. Source; Statistics Canada The population  85 and older is the main driver of the need for long-term care beds. An additional thirty thousand LTC beds by 2028 will only partially offset the rapid growth in the 85+ population.  The ministry of finance p