Ontario hospitals need another $5-billion in provincial funding over the next three years to deal with growing demand, according to a new report released by the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions released its report Thursday in Windsor, pointing to what it describes as chronic underfunding, staffing shortages, rising costs and increasing demand for hospital services.
CUPE says the challenges are being felt locally in Windsor and Chatham-Kent. It estimates Windsor Regional Hospital and Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare have a combined working capital deficit of more than $42 million. CUPE puts Chatham-Kent Health Alliance’s working capital at negative $18-million.
The report says total inpatient days in Ontario have increased by 15 per cent, while the average length of stay has increased from 6.5 days to 7.5 days.
It also says Windsor’s two hospitals are operating at about 91 per cent bed occupancy, while CKHA’s Chatham and Wallaceburg sites are operating at about 96 per cent bed occupancy. Nearly 2,000 patients are being treated in hallways across Ontario on any given day.
Michael Hurley, President of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, says nurses are feeling a high degree of distress due to a gap in care they want to provide and are able to provide.
“There’s this huge gap between what they’re able to do because of time pressure and what the patient needs. And as a result of that, you see many people leave because over time it’s too anguish-inducing to watch people suffer without you being able to provide them with the care that they really deserve and need.”
CUPE researcher Doug Allan says funding levels and staffing levels are below what is required to even just to maintain services.
“We need significant funding increases if we’re going to stop the violence in our hospitals, if we’re going to stop the delays that we’re finding for key surgeries like wait times for hips and knee surgeries and cataract surgeries. We have to have a government that recommits itself to building our hospital capacity. That means bringing our staffing levels up to levels that we see in the rest of Canada.”
Allan says there needs to be more long-term care and hospital care provided.
“We can’t sort of delude ourselves that we can think that people who are in need of chronic care, acute care, intensive care can be treated in home. That’s just unfortunately not a reality that we can survive with. We need to build up all parts of our health care system, but including we have to build up and strengthen our hospital capacity as well.”
Windsor Regional Hospital and Chatham-Kent Health Alliance both acknowledge they’re facing financial and operational pressures, but stopped short of endorsing CUPE’s findings.
The union cites reported deficits of approximately $22-million for Windsor Regional Hospital and $6-million for CKHA.
Meanwhile, the Ontario government is rejecting the report, calling CUPE’s assessment “entirely misguided.”
The province says it’s investing a record $101-billion in healthcare this year, including a fourth consecutive increase in hospital funding, and points to billions of dollars in hospital expansion projects across Ontario.
CUPE argues new hospital buildings alone won’t solve the problem, saying increased operating funding and thousands of additional frontline staff are needed to meet growing demand.