A new research report on Ontario’s hospital crisis is highlighting the “destabilization” of the sector through “chronic underfunding” and “increasing privatization” of healthcare services. “The one thing it highlights is the collapse of working capital for hospitals,” said OCHU-CUPE President Michael Hurley. “They have plowed through much of their cash reserves and many of them are borrowing money, including London area hospitals.” Hurley said the report shows concerning trends as daily operating budgets plummet. “The government has budgeted 3.3 per cent for hospitals this year and the Ontario Hospital Association says they need six,” said Hurley. “We projected for the London hospitals that means about an investment of $70 million just to be able to make sure they can provide current services.” Hurley said funding increases also fail to match growing cost pressures. “London is operating at 98 per cent capacity,” said Hurley. “You have no ability to adapt to any mass casualty event or to deal with any respiratory viruses like COVID-19.” The report states while hospitals face rising deficits with no relief, job cuts and wait times are accelerating across the province. “There are 200,000 waiting for surgeries because of the backlogs,” said Hurley. “The government promised to deal with that. They haven’t dealt with it yet. So we’re asking them to invest $5 billion over three years to phase in an uplift to staff and capacity and to help the hospitals deal with their funding crisis.” In a statement to CTV News, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Health wrote in part, “CUPE’s claims are entirely misguided. Ontario is proud to have one of the largest publicly funded health care systems in the world, investing a record $101 billion this year alone.” The statement continued, “Our government has increased funding for the hospital sector by a record 4 per cent this year, for the third year in a row … this funding is in addition to the hospital expansion projects that are underway in London, including an expanded surgical centre. This is also in addition to the over $60 billion we are investing to get shovels in the ground for over 60 hospital development projects … and the $3.4 billion we are investing to connect every person to primary care by 2029.”
