For Immediate Release:
January 19, 2005

ONE-TIME HOSPITAL FUNDING OVERLOOKS
HEALTH CARE NEEDS OF GTA/905 RESIDENTS

Care Close to Home for GTA/905 Residents Being Compromised

Greater Toronto Area – The Ontario governments’ announcement of $200 million in one-time funding for Ontario hospitals will do little to help GTA/905 hospitals’ facing under funding and fails to recognize the significant population growth in the Region. Of the $89 million in funding to ease pressures faced by hospitals, GTA/905 hospitals learned yesterday that they will collectively receive $9.5 million – slightly above ten per cent of the total funding when the region accounts for fifty per cent of the annual population growth in Ontario. The one-time funding does little to address the collective deficits of Alliance hospitals that now stand at $88 million.

“When you look at the current situation of health system funding in the GTA/905 Region, yesterday’s announcement of one-time funding for GTA/905 residents means we’re only going to be further behind,” said Kirk Corkery, Chair of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance. “Unless the provincial government better recognizes that the GTA/905 region accounts for almost half of the province’s annual growth in population, the goal of providing GTA/905 residents will health care closer to home won’t be realized”.

“When it comes to hospital funding, GTA/905 residents get 25 per cent less hospital funding than other similar regions and 30 per cent less total health care funding,” added Tariq Asmi, Executive Director of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance. “This inequity is all the worse when you consider that GTA/905 residents will now contribute $570 million more to the government due to the health care premium”.

Alliance hospitals have so far spent $20 million in severances this year due to staff lay-offs. The Alliance is concerned that unless the provincial government addresses hospital system under funding and more actively and equitably addresses the population pressures faced by GTA/905 hospitals, millions of dollars will be spent on laying off hospital staff instead increasing access to health care services and reducing wait times.

The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance is the collective voice of acute care and mental health hospitals across the GTA/905 region - from Oshawa to Burlington and north to Newmarket. Alliance hospitals provide care in communities that represent more than 25 per cent of Ontario’s population. The GTA/905 area is the fastest growing region in Ontario, increasing by more than 90,000 new residents annually and comprising more than fifty per cent of Ontario’s annual population growth. The GTA/905 Alliance represents the more than three million residents in the region to ensure that they get better care close to home.

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