One year after Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives took power in Ontario, Michael Hurley, Toronto-based OCHU/CUPE president (OCHU the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions) visited the Sault Friday morning as part of a ‘one year later’ province wide tour calling for major funding increases for the provincial health care system.
“In the last provincial election campaign we had commitments from all political parties to deal with the problem of ending hallway medicine, and this is a check in one year later as to how the government that won the election is doing,” Hurley told reporters at a presentation given at the James L. McIntyre Centennial Library.
“At first glance, with respect to the provincial budget, hospitals and health care didn’t do bad compared to other sectors such as social services...but hospitals, including Sault Area Hospital, need at least another four per cent a year just to meet their normal operating costs. They’re providing drugs for inpatients at the hospital, and the cost of drugs is going up by 10 per cent a year, and doctors salaries increased significantly in the budget,” Hurley said.
Provincial cuts to health care, Hurley said, will continue for several years.
“It’ll be a 15 per cent cut in real terms to hospital budgets. We’re predicting, for the Sault, that will mean the loss of 33 beds and cuts in staff...we’re projecting budget cuts of about three per cent a year to hospitals, including Sault Area Hospital.”
Those cuts, Hurley said, couldn’t come at a worse time.
“The population of Ontario is going to age over the next 20 years...likely the Sault’s hospital will be the centre of acute services for a huge geographic area in the face of these cuts.”
“How do you end hallway medicine if you won’t invest in beds to take people out of the hallways? And it isn’t just current needs. The demand for services will intensify as the population grows and ages. The only thing we can say is, unfortunately, it appears the government wasn’t sincere when they made the commitment to end hallway medicine, and that it will be increasingly difficult to get into hospital, people will be turned away or treated on stretchers in the hallways.”
Hurley also said, despite the government’s investment in 30,000 new long term care beds, there are already 34,000 people on a waiting list for such beds.
Hurley said OCHU/CUPE is urging the people of Ontario to ‘push back’ through town hall meetings, rallies and petitions over the next year.
Protests and rallies aside, what solution does OCHU/CUPE have?
“Absolutely more funding is needed, particularly for the elderly,” Hurley said.
“Those investments won’t be needed forever. They’re required for the next 20 years. Once that period is over you can begin to withdraw those investments as the population begins to drop.”
Hurley said $2.5 billion is needed straight away.
Given the current government’s cuts to many programs and services across the board, Hurley said long term funding can be raised through raising corporate taxes.
“I would certainly say that. Ontario’s rate of corporate taxation is already the lowest of any province or state in North America. So I would say yes, we could roll back some of the corporate tax cuts that have happened, and not do the ones that are planned.”
“I would ask Premier Ford to honour the commitment he made to the people of Ontario to end the crisis of hallway medicine, and that requires them to make investments,” Hurley said.