For Immediate Release

Monday, June 26, 2006

Physicians in Burlington and Halton Region Call for Fair Hospital Funding

Ask Provincial Government to live up to commitment for hospital growth funding

 Burlington: Physicians in Burlington and Halton Region today launched a poster and mail-in campaign to raise awareness about the provincial hospital funding policies that disadvantage residents in Halton Region.

 “As we keep growing, residents in Burlington and Halton Region continue to get less and less funding to run local hospital and other health care services compared to other Ontarians,” said Dr. Patricia Hannon, a local family physician and Vice President of the Medical Staff at Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital. “The lack of provincial growth funding for hospitals and the growing gap in per capita funding in Burlington, Oakville and Halton Region makes it difficult for me and my colleagues to provide the timely access to care for the increasing number of patients in our growing and aging communities.”

 “We need the hospital growth funding that was committed to by the Ministry of Health last summer to maintain and improve local access to hospital care in high growth regions,” Dr. Hannon added. “The lack of growth funding for hospitals in Ontario’s high growth regions such as Halton means that residents in communities like Burlington are less able to get care locally or have to wait longer to get their care.”

 GTA/905 residents in Durham, Halton, Peel and York have seen their regional per capita funding for local hospital care fall from $229 below the provincial average in 2003 to $255 below the provincial average today. As a result, the annual funding gap for hospital services in the GTA/905 has increased from $590 million to $740 million. For Burlington and Halton region residents alone, the per capita gap has increased from $218 to $303 resulting in an annual funding gap of over $134 million.

 “In addition to growth funding, the need for new and expanded facilities at Joseph Brant is urgent. We’ve been planning for the first phase of our Master Plan − a new three-storey wing that includes 11 new operating rooms, expanded laboratory testing facilities and a new Intensive Care Unit,” said  Dr. Dwight Prodger, President, Joseph Brant Memorial Hospital Medical Staff.  “How can our hospital and our health care workers continue to meet the increasing needs of our growing and aging population without approval from the Province to expand our hospital?”

 The poster and “GTA/905 MPP mail-in” campaign is now underway across the four GTA/905 regions of Durham, Halton, Peel and York.  These four regions are growing twice as fast as Ontario as a whole and represent half the annual population growth in the province. The campaign’s goal is to raise awareness about the need for growth funding for hospitals in the GTA/905 to improve local access to hospital care for the three million residents living in the GTA/905.  Posters and brochures are free and are available from the GTA/905 Healthcare Alliance and can be ordered on their website.

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Backgrounder

Posters/Brochures