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Print Today, Health and Long-Term Care Minister George Smitherman announced 3-year, multi-year funding framework for Ontario hospitals. For many years, hospitals have been calling on the province to deliver multi-year funding, so today’s announcement is welcome news. Multi-year funding will assist us in planning for the care needs of patients over a longer period of time as well as achieving a balanced budget, which is now required under legislation. Until now, we have had to wait well into the fiscal year before knowing our funding allocation. This “stop and go” funding approach has contributed to uncertainty for Ontario patients and hospital staff.
For 2005/06, Ontario hospitals will receive an additional $650 million or 5.1 percent in increased operating funding over last year, bringing the total funding to $12.27 billion. In 2006/07, hospitals will receive at least $12.6 billion and $13.1 billion in 2007/08. As a result of today’s announcement, the government has allocated $466,180,200 in new hospital funding, with the remaining $98,825,706 to be announced for reducing wait times for 6 months of the year for hip and knee, cataracts and MRI's, as well as funding for targeted priority programs, critical care, and operating funding for capital expansions.
So what does today’s announcement mean for UHN patients and staff? UHN will receive $27,672,300 in new funding for 2005/06, bringing our total operating budget to $662,045,756. In 2006/07, UHN will receive a further $30,273,400 and $15,174,000 for 2007/08. It is important to remember that this funding is not for new clinical activity. It is needed to cover inflationary pressures associated with salaries and equipment, as well as for expanded clinical programs associated with the waiting time agenda that we’ve already committed to in our budget. Some of the detail related to today’s announcement will be provided later by the Ministry and we will share this information with you as it becomes available.
In addition, the government announced a new funding method that recognizes the unique needs and different sizes of hospitals, how efficient they have been, and whether demand for their services has grown sharply in the past year.
I want to congratulate UHN’s Operations leadership on their hard work in developing a realistic budget plan for 2005/06. It is essential that we keep to this budget plan. We will continue with our efforts to control all of our costs by increasing the organization’s efficiencies and looking for innovative new approaches to providing patient centered care.
As always, I welcome your feedback.
Bob
