Declining hospital bed capacity continues under Ford government
The massive decline in hospital beds in Ontario since the early 1990s is, by now, well known. Less well known is that hospital beds per capita have continued to decline…
Leftwords
Spending on health must get much larger
The long term fiscal and economic outlook released this week by Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) shows that big increases in health care spending are required in the years ahead.…
Health care support workers have the highest number of workplace injuries
Lost time injury (LTI) claims for workers compensation by health care support workers have shot up in the last few years, even before COVID-19. For many years, claims were in…
The Ford PC government thanks hospital employees by telling them to work harder for less
With as much fanfare as it could muster, the Ford PC government has re-announced its Budget plan of $300 million for hospitals to deal with the backlog of surgeries and…
Doug Ford and the PCs plan another decade of austerity — except even harsher this time
Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office (FAO) reports that the nominal health care funding increases planned by the Ford PC goverment between 2019/20 to 2029-30 fall well short of the nominal increases…
Ford PC government plans years of cuts to hospital services
The pandemic led to a brief reprieve from the austerity that has bedevilled Ontario hospital care since the great recession. After decades of being on par with other provinces, hospital…
The Ontario Budget: Hard Times Ahead
Health Care: To ease future cuts, the government established a budgeting system this year which would see much of the COVID-related funding budgeted under special funds distinct from the normal…
Health care funding $466 million less than budgeted
In the 2019/20 budget health care was budgeted at $59.97 billion. That was subsequently increased by over $450 million to $60.42 billion, mostly through Supplementary Estimates late in the fiscal…
Ford government plans to deepen privatization of hospital and home care services: Bill 175
The proposed reforms under Bill 175 will privatize health care services, weaken public oversight, remove legislative protections, undermine home care working conditions, and unleash an untested, home care experiment. Chaos…
Ford government will not spend $2 billion of its budget — deficit on track to fall $3 billion
As usual, the provincial government is under-spending its (revised) budget. Based on figures for provincial expenditures for the the first nine months of the fiscal year, the government-funded Financial Accountability…
Ontario revenue up $1.5 billion since November – but no new health care spending announced
Ontario’s third quarter finances came out yesterday. They confirm that although planned health care funding has increased $404.1 million since the 2019/20 Budget, no further increase has been achieved since…
PC Government Plans Many More Health Care Cuts
The Financial Accountability Office (FAO) Budget and Economic review has identified planned government spending savings that come via announced program changes (program cuts like the government’s cut to OHIP+), announced…
Ford Plans to Cut Health Care Worker Benefits by $250 million
Attack on health care worker benefits: The Ontario Ford government has specifically targeted in the Budget reducing premium payments (e.g. shift payments), overtime, and sick leave for health care workers.…
Health Care Funding Means Cuts are Coming (and its Armageddon for other programs)
Hospital operating funding is budgeted to increase $384 million this fiscal year – close to a 2% increase compared to the interim estimated provincial funding for last year. This is…
3000 more hospital beds? Rhetoric falls short of realty with Doug Ford’s government
Soon after the Budget, the government announced they would spend $27 billion on hospital infrastructure over ten years and create 3,000 more hospital beds. For a moment, it may have…
Are health care administrative expenses out of control in Ontario?
The Progressive Conservative government has justified its health restructuring plans with the claim that administrative expenses are much higher in Ontario than in Canada. When introducing the reforms, health minister…