Ford defends health-care record as hospitals say financial 'crisis' is coming

Premier Doug Ford is defending his government’s health-care record ahead of his eighth budget, even as the province’s hospitals say they face a billion-dollar structural funding deficit. 

Ontario’s premier has repeatedly pushed back in recent weeks against criticism that his government is not providing the province’s hospital system with enough funding to address problems like hallway health care. That comes as the association that represents Ontario’s hospitals is warning that funding uncertainty is causing critical financial strain.

Ford, who promised to end hallway health care in hospitals when he was elected in 2018, says the province’s population has grown since then, compounding the problem. He has stressed that his government has rolled out tens of billions in new spending on health care in that time.

“What we've done is nothing less than a miracle to our health-care system,” Ford said at a recent hospital announcement in Niagara Falls.

Ontario has not announced when it will table its 2026 budget, but it could come as soon as the end of the month, after the legislature returns for its spring sitting on March 23.

Spending on health care is always the single largest expense in the spending plan — sitting at $91.5 billion last year — and Ontario Finance Minister Peter Bethlenfalvy said recently that he is concerned its rate of growth is “unsustainable.”

Ford has stressed his government has hiked health spending by $27 billion over seven years, touted another $50 billion spent on hospital expansions and highlighted new initiatives to recruit and retain doctors, nurses and other health-care workers.

“Do you know what we need to do more? We need to start promoting it more,” Ford said, hinting his government may advertise their health-care achievements, a year after Ontario spent a government-record $112 million on ads.

“We need to start advertising it and telling the people what we're doing for health care. And that's going to be coming shortly.” 

The head of the Ontario Hospital Association said Ford’s government increased the number of acute care beds in hospitals, which has helped address hospital crowding and hallway health care.

But Anthony Dale said provincial edicts ordering hospitals to balance their budgets over the next three years without stable multi-year funding commitments jeopardize that progress.

“Our view is that now that we're just getting things solid under our feet, now is not the time for this kind of uncertainty,” he said. “Right now this is rapidly developing into a crisis that is affecting the underlying financial health of Ontario's hospitals.”

Dale said costs in the sector are rising at a rate of six per cent annually, in part because of Ontario’s growing, aging and more medically-complex population. Recent funding increases from the government of four per cent a year have created a “deepening structural deficit” of $1 billion.

Dale said hospitals have dipped into their financial reserves, normally used for capital investments or to protect hospital finances, to fund everyday operations. And $500 million in cost savings found by hospitals illustrates that there is nowhere left to cut that doesn’t impact patient care, he said.