- Ontario’s government has cut hospitals’ global budgets in real-dollar terms for 8 years in a row. If the government does not change course, 2016 -17 will be the ninth consecutive year of hospital cuts – the longest period of hospital cuts in the history of Ontario’s public hospitals.
- Ontario now has the least amount of nursing care per average patient (including RN and RPN care).
- Ontario has the fewest hospital beds left of all provinces in Canada, and lags far below the other provinces.
- Ontario has the highest hospital readmission rates in Canada, and they are rising.
- By every reasonable measure, Ontario’s hospital funding levels are at or near the bottom of the country and far from the average of the other provinces.
- Cuts are resulting a crisis of overcrowding; cancelled surgeries because there are no beds; too-early discharges; high re-admission rates; infections; violence; ambulance delays; understaffing; and compromised safety for patients and staff alike.
“That people are
sleeping on stretchers in hallways in every major city in Ontario, sometimes for
days at a time, is a travesty. Small and rural hospitals are being eviscerated
despite all evidence regarding community need. The fact that staffing and
funding are being cut to unsafe levels without any reasonable benchmarks shows
just how far beyond any limits Ontario’s hospital cuts have gone,” said Natalie
Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition. “This issue should be
considered the serious crisis that it truly is, by our policy
makers.”
Student interns from
Ryerson University’s nursing program, Patricia Julian and Celine Yu helped to
research and compile the list of cuts. They expressed shock at what they found.
“Among the enormous cuts to hospitals in the largest cities of Ontario, what
stood out to me the most were the cuts to mental health services,” noted
Patricia Julian, citing cuts from Hamilton’s east end psychiatric clinic to
London Ontario where mental health patients have been sleeping on the emergency
department floor while waiting for hospital beds to open up. “These cuts are
devastating to an already vulnerable population.” “Northern and small
community’s hospitals have been victim to numerous cuts and even the risk of
closure,” reported Celine Yu. “These closures and cuts risk patients’ lives and
ultimately the health of entire communities.”
“Like every Ontarian,
we have been appalled at the money that is taken away from care in exorbitant
executive salaries, consultants, PR people and ballooning managements,” noted
Ms. Mehra. “But even taking this into account, Ontario’s government still funds
our communities’ hospitals at a lower rate by every measure than other provinces
and has cut care levels beyond any comparable jurisdiction. This underlines the
facts that our government can and should choose to restore services and funding,
and to ensure that funding goes to actual care and vital support services that
patients rely upon.”
For the full report: http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/final-beyond-limits-report.pdf
For the full report: http://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/wp-content/uploads/final-beyond-limits-report.pdf
For more
information: Kim Johnston campaign
director (416) 441-2502.
~ Protecting Public Medicare for All ~
