For Immediate Release:
May 11, 2005

PROVINCIAL BUDGET MAKES LITTLE PROGRESS TOWARDS ADDRESSING GTA/905 HOSPITAL GROWTH PRESSURES

Toronto– The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance is disappointed that today’s Provincial Budget does not address GTA/905 hospital growth pressures and hospital funding gap facing the three million residents of Durham, Halton, Peel and York regions. Today’s budget fails to include any specific operating funding provisions to address growth in regions like the GTA/905 that experience high and sustained population growth.

“Under successive governments of all political stripes, our regions have not received adequate hospital funding from the province,” said Tariq Asmi, Executive Director of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance. “While today’s budget provides $504 million in new funding for Ontario’s hospitals, it is unclear how much is targeted to general hospital operations, how much for inflation, and important to the GTA/905, how much is for growth and hospital services close to home. Further, in comparison to last years total funding for hospital patient care of $11.9 billion, it is only $100 million more – less than a 1% increase.

“One silver lining in the budget is the government’s health infrastructure plan to expand, build and upgrade hospitals in rapidly growing areas of the province which should include the GTA/905”, said Asmi. “However any impact of these planned investments for GTA/905 residents will not be felt for some time”.

“The regions of the GTA/905 will welcome and accommodate half of the province’s annual population growth in the year ahead,” said Asmi. “If the $504 million is not for general operations and without a component being targeted to high growth hospitals, I can’t see how this will translate into fair funding for growth and begin to close the gap for GTA/905 residents’ hospital care”.

When compared to other regions in the province on a per patient basis, the GTA/905 receives 27 per cent less hospital funding, translating into $212 less per person than the provincial average. The total impact of this inequity across the region’s eleven hospitals results in a funding shortfall of $544 million.

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 50 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.

-30-