Small northeastern hospitals welcome funding boost, but CEO's say budgets still not stable
CBC
Some provincial funding targeted to struggling rural hospitals in the northeast is a boon but some CEO’s say it falls short of keeping them afloat.
The province announced a four per cent increase in dedicated funding to small and rural hospitals in the last budget, the final portion of which is being released now, a few months before the hospitals must balance their budgets.
The Conservative MPP for Algoma-Manitoulin, Bill Rosenberg said in a news release the money from the Health Sector Stabilization Plan amounts to $11 million to seven hospitals in his riding.
It’s intended, he said, to ensure access to core services in rural communities with staffing shortages and aging buildings and equipment.
One of the organizations to receive a boost is the Manitoulin Health Centre with hospitals in Mindemoya and Little Current.
President and CEO Paula Fields said their portion is $1.3 million.
She sais she’s grateful for the MPP’s advocacy and the money is a recognition of how small northern rural hospitals have been chronically underfunded.
But she said it still falls short.
“It's not enough,” she said. “I don't think any of the hospitals that receive this funding will balance their budgets come year end.”
The deadline is looming at the end of March, and hospitals are, by provincial law, not allowed to carry deficits.
Fields anticipates a shortfall of about $200,000, but said it will probably be higher because of the current flu outbreak, a continued reliance on expensive agency nurses, and the increasing burden of having to provide security to protect patients and employees.
As mental health and substance abuse bring more people to rural emergency rooms, Fields said increasingly hospitals are bearing the cost of hiring security out of their base budgets.
Hospitals are also playing catch-up, said the president and CEO of the MICs Group of Health Services.
Paul Chatelain, who oversees hospitals in Matheson, Iroquois Falls and Cochrane, said their allocation is $2.7 million for the three hospitals.
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