Michael Hurley wanted to do what he calls a hospital funding reality check this morning.
Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE, was at a CUPE event in North Bay this morning and wanted to respond to the funding announcement Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli made for the North Bay Regional Health Centre Thursday.
See related: Major funding handed out for transitional hospital unit
Hurley believes the projected funding numbers for the NBRHC will not add up.
“The provincial government announced in April in its budget that hospital budgets would increase by one per cent, which is true, but the reality is the North Bay hospital and West Nipissing etc, they all need about at least 4 per cent a year to meet their costs,” said Hurley.
“Doctors salaries in the recent agreement went up 6.1 per cent, drugs are going up over 10 per cent a year, medical technologies are expensive so the costs are more like 4 per cent, which means each year this hospital is having a cut in its real funding.”
Hurley says, according to government numbers, those cuts will intensify.
“The conservatives April 2019 budget will cut hospital operating costs in real terms by 3 per cent a year on average. The NBRHC will see a projected funding cut of $19.2 million by 2021-212 and $32 million by 2023-24.”
Fedeli responded to some of those union claims on Thursday.
“I can say that we have added $1.3 billion into health care into Ontario, $700 million into education and today we are providing a further $2.04 million to the North Bay Regional Health Centre,” stated Fedeli.
“The daily fear-mongering of the labour leaders of Ontario is certainly getting tiresome because it is never based on fact.”
