For Immediate Release:
May 3, 2005

GTA/905 RESIDENTS SHORTCHANGED IN HOSPITAL FUNDING
REPORT PEGS GAP AT $544 MILLION AND GROWING

Toronto– As a result of the first ever comprehensive accountability report on the state of hospital care in the regions surrounding Toronto, the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance is renewing its call to the provincial government to provide a fair share of health care funding to the region’s three million residents. The report, The State of Hospital Care in the GTA/905, 2005, was undertaken by the Alliance to track how well local hospitals are able to provide care close to home for the residents of Durham, Halton, Peel and York.

“The residents we serve deserve to know how well their hospitals are doing, and where there are shortfalls. The Alliance is committed to reporting on these performance indicators to identify the successes, the challenges, and areas for improvement.,” explained Kirk Corkery, Chair of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance. “What this report demonstrates is that while there are clear indications that local hospital care is excellent, despite our best efforts and our significant efficiencies in delivering care, GTA/905 hospitals are stretched. In order to maintain and improve local access to services, we need a fair share of provincial health funding.”

The State of Hospital Care report brings together available information in four critical areas:

• Access to hospital services and wait times;
• Patient satisfaction and outcomes;
• Hospital efficiency; and
• Quality of Worklife and Staff Satisfaction

Using information in these four areas, the Alliance has compared the performance of GTA/905 hospitals to other regions of the province. The report shows that GTA/905 hospitals are operating at capacity, and with more than 90,000 additional residents each year, the ability to deliver better care close to home is becoming compromised.

“As the Alliance has made clear on numerous occasions, we do not receive a fair share of funding for our local hospitals,” noted Tariq Asmi, Executive Director of the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance. “Because we do not receive a fair share of funding, our hospitals are being shortchanged by more than $544 million annually. That represents $212 less in per capita funding than what other regions of the province receive to deliver hospital care.”

The GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance is committed to working with the government of Ontario to improve the delivery of health services. More than three million people live in the region, and the Alliance is concerned that they are able to access high quality services close to home in a timely manner.

“Residents of the GTA/905 should not have to look beyond their own communities in order to receive hospital care. Our hospitals can already provide this care at a lower cost than Toronto hospitals. Currently, we do not have the funding and facilities to treat enough residents close to home,” said Asmi.

“We can end these imbalances and provide better care close to home with a recognition by government that our situation is unique,” added Corkery. “Our regions are growing the fastest but we’re among the lowest funded. We need a fair share of healthcare funding for our hospitals to accommodate this rapid population growth and provide our residents with the best care possible.”

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, accounting for more than half 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.

A full copy of the report is available at www.gta905health.com.

BACKGROUNDER
THE STATE OF HOSPITAL CARE IN THE GTA/905

REPORT HIGHLIGHTS

For GTA/905 residents who are able to get hospital care close to home in their own communities, the care they receive is excellent.

There are two major concerns:

1. Not all the GTA/905 residents who could receive hospital care close to home are able to access that care.
   
2. Continued underfunding of local hospital care, both in terms of operating funding and physical facilities, will begin to compromise the quality and timeliness of hospital care for GTA/905 residents in their own communities.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

GTA/905 hospitals have an occupancy rate of almost 94 per cent, compared to an occupancy rate of 77 per cent for the province and 83 per cent for Toronto hospitals

• Only 73 per cent of GTA/905 residents needing hospital care actually receive it in their local hospital, compared to 93 per cent in Windsor, 89 per cent in Sudbury, and 85 per cent in Kitchener/Waterloo
  
  
• Wait times for cancer care, heart and stroke care, cataract surgery, and hip and knee replacements vary compared to the rest of the province. Wait times for mastectomy and hysterectomy for cancer are significantly longer than the provincial average. Wait times for angioplasty and cataract surgery are slightly longer than the provincial average, and wait times for heart bypass surgery and coronary angiography are at the provincial average.
  
  
• For 12 specific indicators within these service areas (and including MRI/CT scans), GTA/905 residents have rates of access that are below the provincial average for nine of 12 procedures
  
  
• Emergency room wait times in the GTA/905 (3.9 hours) are consistent with the provincial average (4 hours)
  
  
• Hospitals in the GTA/905 are provincial leaders in the use of day surgery, providing 79 per cent of total surgical volumes as day surgery
  
  
• Patient satisfaction scores for overall hospital care are slightly lower than the provincial average, and satisfaction with emergency department care is lower still
  
  
• Acute care readmission rates are 12 per cent lower than the provincial average, but are higher than readmission rates in Toronto, indicating room for improvement
  
  
• Hospitals in the GTA/905 spend eight per cent less on administration than the average Ontario hospital
  
  
• The actual per case cost of treatment in GTA/905 hospitals is five per cent less than the Ontario average

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