Province’s 2016 Budget Includes New Investments in High-Quality Health Care
News from the Government of Ontario
Posted February 29th, 2016 on Niagara At Large
Queen’s Park, Toronto, Ontario – As part of the 2016 Budget, Ontario is proposing a new investment of more than $345 million to all publicly funded hospitals, including a one per cent increase to base funding, to provide better patient access to high-quality health care services.
Niagara, Ontario’s new super hospital – opened three years ago – in west St. Catharines
In 2016-2017, hospitals would receive:
- $175 million to provide patients with access to more services in new and redeveloped hospitals and for targeted priority services such as organ and tissue transplants
- $160 million to improve access and wait times for hospital services, including additional procedures such as cataract surgeries, knee and hip replacements and knee arthroscopies
- $7.5 million for small, northern and rural hospitals, which is in addition to Ontario’s $20 million Small and Rural Hospital Transformation Fund
- $6 million for mental health hospitals.
Investing in hospitals is part of the government’s plan to build a better Ontario through its Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care, which provides patients with faster access to the right care; better home and community care; the information they need to live healthy; and a health care system that is sustainable for generations to come.
QUOTES
“With this new and important funding, we are working to ensure that patients can receive the procedures they need faster, such as hip and knee replacements and cataract surgery. Investing in hospitals is part of our commitment to put patients first by ensuring they get the high-quality health care they need – when they need it.” — Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care
“The province’s economic plan supports strong public services in communities across Ontario. The plan reinforces one of the most important provincial services on which Ontarians rely – health care. The 2016 Budget supports continued commitments to increase patients’ access to primary care, to provide more care for people at or close to home and to help all Ontario families continue to receive quality health care.” — Charles Sousa, Minister of Finance
“This investment will go to support frontline care and help to keep wait times low, maintain access to elective surgery and ensure that important health service programs are maintained. Ontario hospitals have been relentless in further improving their performance and have developed strong partnerships with government and other providers in an effort to create a better experience for patients and clients across a range of services.” — Anthony Dale, President and CEO of the Ontario Hospital Association
QUICK FACTS
- There are 154 hospitals in Ontario.
- Hospital funding in Ontario has increased more than 50 per cent, from $11.5 billion in 2003-04 to $17.4 billion in 2016-17.
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-$7.5 million goes to small, northern and rural hospitals.
-The rest of the $345 million goes to the places that already have all the resources, staff and equipment. That means the “small, northern and rural hospitals” that so many rely upon get short changed again. I guess that means someone in Chapleau, or Timmins or Fort Erie doesn’t deserve access to some of the same quality of facilities as Toronto, London or Windsor. At least in Fort Erie you can be transferred across the border.
Of course the specialists flock to the big population centres due to the number of clients and availability of resources, but if you have a massive coronary or major trauma and have no specialists or equipment available during the “golden hour”….RIP. I’m sure there are MANY GP’s and specialists, including some currently coming from other lands, whose ability to get approved in Canada seems to require jumping through far more hoops than is necessary. How many doctors and technicians are driving cabs? A couple of years ago I struck up a conversation with a guy from the Middle East. I mentioned I was going to visit a friend in K/W with a brain tumour and he described accurately and in detail what her condition must have been from what we discussed. He was a PEDIATRIC ONCOLOGIST in Iran but was pumping gas for me. I would bet he would be happy to practice anywhere in Canada. Why not expedite the process for such people and use some of that money for incentives to locate in those neglected “small, northern and rural” hospitals even if only to provide stabilizing care.
The money spent on the St Catharines Hospital is a great example of waste. Lovely lobby but not even enough parking for staff and fewer beds than the hospitals they closed. I don’t care what the lobby looks like or if it has a Timmie’s. Just take care of us.
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Niagara Region had 6/7 functioning hospitals. At the Open Houses for the new St. Catharine’s Hospital I was advised that all the existing hospitals outside St. Catharines, including Fort Erie, would remain open because there would not be enough beds in the new hospital to meet the needs of the Region. We are aware that this is not the case. Niagara Health System will have the Niagara Region down to 2. I predict the next step to be that because it is not economical to have a health system for 2 hospital sites that the Niagara Region may as well be absorbed into the Hamilton/St. Joseph’s System. We, in the Niagara area, will benefit from the “hand me downs” from the Hamilton area while it receives the new machinery etc.
If one has supplementary insurance, I suspect, one can be transferred to Buffalo.
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