Critical choices for Northern Ontario hospitals, OHA says

Northern hospitals will be forced to make critical choices about services they can no longer provide, the Ontario Hospital Association states.

The OHA made the comment today as it holds a caucus in North Bay.

Further information is included in the following news release issued by the OHA this morning:
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(NORTH BAY)
As the Ontario Hospital Association begins a conference of northern hospitals today, people in northern Ontario should be aware that a substantial funding shortfall will mean that patients and their communities will see significant reductions in the services provided by northern hospitals.

Hospitals are now required to balance their budgets, even if that requires the reduction or elimination of certain services.

"In Northern Ontario, hospitals are the cornerstone of the health system in many communities and regions. Any reduction in services as a result of the underfunding will leave patients with no alternative place to go for care," said OHA Region 1 (Northern Ontario) Chair, and Sudbury Regional Hospital Trustee, Jackie Thoms.

For the first time, the Ontario government has identified a list of hospital services that cannot be cut.

This means that hospitals will be forced to choose from remaining, unprotected services to help balance budgets, in addition to ongoing administrative savings and system-wide efficiencies.

According to an OHA survey in early August, hospitals in northern Ontario are facing a combined deficit of $44 million this year, largely as a result of operating costs which are forecast to increase by eight per cent for 2004-05.

In addition, northern hospitals account for 44% of all hospitals in Ontario facing "severe" deficits, or shortfalls in excess of eight per cent.

Driving costs in northern hospitals is an aging population; cost increases for medical supplies and equipment; rising drug costs; rising physician payments; cost increases for utilities, insurance and food; and wage, salary and benefit increases for hospital staff.

These operating costs are growing almost entirely due to factors outside of hospitals' direct control.

Yet despite the funding shortfall, the government of Ontario is distributing interim agreements to every hospital in Ontario, which requires all hospitals to balance their budgets at all costs.

Hospitals are required to submit their recovery plans to the government by September 30th, which commits them to balancing their budgets next year, without knowing what their funding allocations will be.

"We will know very shortly what exact steps hospitals across northern Ontario will be forced to take," said Thoms.

"Our hospitals are being forced to make very difficult choices about the type and level of care they can continue to provide patients. Without sufficient funding that covers the true cost of providing care to patients in our northern communities, hospitals will be forced to cut services, waiting times will increase and timely access to care will be impacted."