Unions: Patients shortchanged by Ontario hospital funding

Ontario spends 25.3 per cent less than the rest of Canada (excluding Quebec) on hospital care, which means Health Sciences North would need to increase its budget by $57 million a year to reach average hospital funding levels, says the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions.

The council, which bargains collective agreements on behalf of Canadian Union of Public Employee (CUPE) hospital workers, used data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information to reach its numbers. The institute collects health-care data from all provinces and territories, except Quebec.

Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, said the hospital funding gap in Ontario translates to a $353 deficit for every resident in the province.

To arrive at what it says is Health Sciences North's funding shortfall (compared to the rest of Canada), the council multiplied the city's population (roughly 160,000) by $353 to arrive at the $57 million annual funding shortfall figure.

The council said if Ontario hospitals were funded to the same level as hospitals in other provinces, several cuts at the hospital could have been avoided, citing the closure of mental health beds at the Kirkwood site, the elimination of 87,000 hours of nursing and direct care and cuts to in-patient psychiatry, surgeries, obstetrics, oncology, critical care, the emergency department and the recent downgrading of registered practical nurses in renal dialysis at Health Sciences North.

“There's a funding gap because the provincial government has made a conscious decision to cut corporate taxation to the lowest levels of any state or province in North America,” Hurley said. “Is it really necessary for Ontario to have the lowest corporate tax rate in North America?”

The funding gap hits Northern Ontario more than any part of the province, said Hurley, because the region has an older population and higher rates of certain chronic diseases and some cancers.

Budgets for Ontario hospitals have been frozen for four years, and with the province on track to miss its deficit targets in 2017 and 2018, could continue into the future, Hurley said.