Fewer Hands: Understaffed and Overloaded Hospitals in Ontario

Compensation for hospital workers has declined for years. But Ford still wants more

The Ford government suggests it must reduce the real wages of hospital workers via Bill 124, and now even proposes to appeal the court decision that found the legislation unconstitutional. However, no such need exists - quite the opposite. Spending on compensation has been shrinking as a portion of hospital budgets for many years. The result of this shrinkage? The short staffing, workplace violence, staff burn-out, and falling real wages that are currently hobbling hospitals. Spending on compensation has consistently declined as a percentage of total hospital spending in Ontario: Data source: CIHI, Provincial/territorial hospital spending by type of expense, province/territory and Canada (excluding Quebec and Nunavut) , The decline in compensation is not something intrinsic to modern hospitals. The experience in Ontario is in stark contrast with the experience in the rest of Canada. For provinces and territories other than Ontario, compensation is increasing as a share of total

Four Ways the Ford Government is Privatizing Hospitals

Premier Ford wants for-profit surgical clinics -- but that is just one area where his government is privatizing hospitals. Unfortunately, there is so much more. The privatized American heath care disaster is on full display right on our doorstep. According to the US government 31.6 million Americans have no health insurance whatsoever, including 3.7 million children. Many millions more have inadequate health insurance. A recent survey indicates that f orty-three percent of working-age adults were inadequately insured in 2022. Twenty-nine percent of people with employer coverage and 44 percent of those with individual coverage were underinsured. Forty-six percent of respondents said they had skipped or delayed care because of the cost, and 42 percent said they had problems paying medical bills or were paying off medical debt. Medical bills hit African Americans and Latinx/Hispanics especially hard. US health care costs per capita are twice Canadian costs ($15,275 [Candian doll

There's money galore for private clinics -- while the PCs starve health care

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

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