A new report examining Ontario’s hospital funding system warns communities across the province could face worsening wait times, staffing shortages and increased pressure on patient care without significant new investment from the province.
The report, titled Failure by Design, was written by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives senior researcher Andrew Longhurst and examines the growing financial pressures facing Ontario hospitals.
Among its findings, the report says Ontario continues to fund hospitals and the broader health-care system at the lowest per capita rate in Canada, while hospitals face increasing deficits, overcrowding, staffing shortages and surgical backlogs.
The report estimates Ontario hospitals would require at least $3.2 billion in additional operating funding just to maintain existing 2025 service levels.
Longhurst says the effects are already being felt in communities across Ontario, including smaller regional centres served by hospitals like Northumberland Hills Hospital, Campbellford Memorial Hospital as well as larger facilities like the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.
The report argues Ontario has fewer hospital beds, lower staffing levels and less hospital funding per person than any other province in the country, contributing to increasing pressure throughout the system.
Longhurst says those challenges are unfolding within a broader funding imbalance.
The report also raises concerns about staffing retention, warning financial pressures are forcing hospitals to freeze hiring, leave vacancies unfilled or reduce positions altogether.
Ontario’s Council of Hospital Unions president Michael Hurley says staffing costs make up the majority of hospital spending, leaving few alternatives when deficits grow.
According to the report, Ontario hospitals ended the last fiscal year with a combined projected deficit exceeding $800 million, while emergency department closures, long surgical wait lists and delayed patient transfers continue affecting hospitals throughout the province.
Longhurst and Hurley both argue that without substantial increases to hospital funding, the system will continue facing mounting strain, increasing wait times and ongoing staffing challenges that could affect patient care across Ontario communities, including right here in Northumberland.
(Written by Joseph Goden with files from Branden Rushton)
