The Ottawa Hospital's plan to eliminate 400 jobs is bad news for people in our city and it's likely just the beginning as other city hospitals get their budget allocations from the province this summer.
The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) dominates health care in Ottawa with its three campuses and its role as regional trauma centre. The cuts it has announced will mean we get less care than we did last year. How does that make sense on any level? Who has ever gone to a hospital and said, 'The problem here is that they have too many employees.'
According to an Investigative Journalism Bureau report on hospital finances, TOH was one of the few hospitals in the province with a surplus last year. If it needs to cut 400 jobs, what will the situation be like at the city's other hospitals?
TOH doesn't have exact funding numbers yet, but it is extrapolating from a provincial budget increase that is far short of need.
It's disturbing that these new Ottawa job reductions are being instituted with so little fight from community leaders or the hospital itself. TOH refused an interview on the cuts. The Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) isn't willing to be interviewed on hospital cuts, either, although they are happening across the province.
But let's not blame the victims. Ontario hospitals, already strained to the limits, are shedding jobs because of the Doug Ford government's years of sustained refusal to properly fund this vital element of health care.
It's odd, because the Ford government is making gains on family doctor supply, home care and long-term care. Somehow, hospitals haven't come to the top of the list, although one could argue they are the most important part of the health care system.
That's not because the OHA has failed to make a compelling, fact-based case for increased hospital funding, and not just once, either.
The response from the Ford government has been weak. The OHA estimated that hospitals needed an additional $2.8 billion this year. The Ford government provided $1.1 billion and hailed the funding as 'historic.'
Not surprisingly, Ontario hospitals have struggled to balance their books for years, many of them using reserves to close the gaps. That same practice led to the takeover of several school boards. Are hospital boards next?
The Ford government professes to believe that the hospital funding problem can be resolved by the discovery of efficiencies. Last year, hospitals were asked to submit three-year efficiency plans. Despite that, this budget only gives them one-year money. Kind of hard to plan.
As the OHA pointed out last year in a report entitled Ontario Hospitals-Leaders in Efficiency, Ontario's hospitals are already the most efficient in the country. It was the third edition of the report.
Ontario has the lowest hospital expenditure per capita by a provincial government, the lowest provincial average length of stay and the lowest cost of an inpatient stay. If Ontario spent the average per capita rate of the other provinces, it would cost $4.4 billion more annually, the OHA says.
