BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
Up to 8,000 jobs may be lost as hospitals attempt to comply with an Ontario government policy forcing hospitals to balance their books by March
2006, said the head of the Ontario Hospital Association.
?This would have a devastating impact on staffing levels. Critical health-care services are on the line,? said Hilary Short, speaking at a Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce lunch Tuesday.
While hospitals should control costs and attempt to balance their budgets, the government needs to understand this isn?t always easy, she said.
The OHA estimates Ontario?s hospitals will face a funding shortfall of $760 million by the end of the upcoming fiscal year.
At this point, balanced books are only possible through deep cuts to patient care, said Short.
The government needs to provide transitional funding to make sure this doesn?t happen, she said.
Each year, hospital costs increase between six and eight percent because of a growing population, more modern equipment, expensive drugs, and rising costs to retain health care professionals. But despite these increases, the province gave hospitals only a 4.3 base increase this year.
The Ontario government should also revisit its funding plan for hospitals in the upcoming budget, said Short.
The CEO wants the province to move to a multi-year base funding model that looks at the volume and complexity of care they provide, and rewards efficiency and performance.
Right now, Ontario hospitals receive funding on a yearly basis, and have to wait until relatively late in the fiscal year to learn how much money they have to work with.
Change is necessary, said Short, but it needs to be done carefully. In Ontario, family health teams are being brought in to improve primary care for those without family doctors, and funding is being moved to regional administrative units called Local Health Integration Networks (LHINs).
?Taken together, the component parts of this transformation agenda are designed to accomplish a single goal ? drive down costs, while improving access for patients to Ontario?s health care system,? she said.
While it?s easy to put down the McGuinty government, they shouldn?t take sole blame for our health-care woes, said Short.
The federal government receives $23 billion more in federal taxes than comes back to the province.
?It?s for that reason that the OHA, the Ontario Medical Association, the Ontario Nurses Association, and other health-care associations signed a shared letter to the prime minister supporting the Ontario government?s call for more federal funding to address urgent priorities, including health care,? she said.
Sudbury Regional Hospital chief of staff Dr. Chris McKibbon said Short?s comments were a dead-on assessment of the challenges faced by SRH and other Ontario hospitals.
?It describes the situation of hospitals struggling with rising costs, and having to make tough decisions, but also creative decisions about how to manage those. The SRH has been struggling with those as you well know, and we found some solutions. We still have some challenges to
overcome,? he said.
McKibbon said while he is intrigued by the idea of multi-year funding, there is no easy solution.
?There are many strategies for funding hospitals and many jurisdictions to look to...I don?t believe there is any one magic solution. I think that the solution we need is a collaboration between hospitals, physicians, other allied health professionals, and between the ministry,? he said.
