Ontario hospitals suffering long bed wait times

By Karen Mullins

TORONTO – Thousands of patients are waiting for beds in cash strapped Ontario hospitals.

And the situation could get worse if the government does not cough up enough money, warns the Ontario Hospital Association.

“Large numbers of hospital beds would need to be closed. Our hospital system currently operates at nearly 100% capacity. Last month, 4,977 Ontarians were waiting in hospital beds for a long-term care bed, complex care, or rehabilitation, or to receive community services that are also backlogged,” said Tom Closson, president of OHA.

“These particular problems would be felt most acutely in northeastern, southeastern and central Ontario,” he said.

Already, Ontario, which spends about 13 per cent less per capita than other provinces, has bed backlogs with patients waiting in emergency and other wards for a bed.

“In January alone 4,977 Ontarians were waiting in hospital beds for a long-term care bed, complex care, or rehabilitation. Ontario hospitals are running at nearly 100% capacity,” he said.

“745 patients waited in hospitals’ emergency departments for a medical bed to become available, and these numbers are increasing, particularly in the Greater Toronto Area, where a rapidly growing population is already straining the health care system,” he said.

Closson said on Tuesday that his agency has called on the Government of Ontario to provide the hospital sector with a 2
percent increase in base operating funding in the 2010-11 fiscal year.

This increase is lower than the current rate of hospitals’ salary ans expense inflation Closson stated.

“To be clear: if the hospital sector receives a 2 percent increase in operating funding, the basket of services that many hospitals offer will change, and there will be changes to the hospital workforce,” said in his budget presentation.

“However, the data we have seen to date strongly suggest that an increase of less than 2 percent in hospital operating funding would undercut the government’s goals with respect to reducing wait times in emergency departments, undo much of the hard-won progress made to date in reducing surgical wait times, and erode public confidence in our health care system.”

Closson warned that without the increase some hospitals in Ontario will have to be eliminated. Northern Ontario faces the worse crises if the funding does not come through. With a lack of community services hospitals often play the role in the north for local health care.

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Posted by Karen J. Mullins on Feb 2 2010. Filed under Canada, More News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry