‘Things are bleak in the sector,’ said author of new report that finds current funding levels are not enough for Ontario hospitals to meet increased needs

A new report warns that a funding crisis at Ontario hospitals has led to growing challenges keeping up with patient care – including at Sault Area Hospital.

The majority of Ontario’s 136 hospitals faced funding deficits over the past three years as wait times ballooned in emergency rooms throughout the province, according to new research by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Titled Failure, By Design: Ontario’s deepening hospital funding crisis, the findings were presented this morning at the John Rhodes Community Centre by senior researcher Andrew Longhurst, who raised concerns that communities are being placed at risk while hospitals contend with underfunding and operational deficits.

In 2024-25, 55 per cent of Ontario hospitals ran deficits – a problem that was even worse in the North East region, where 63 per cent of hospitals ran deficits last year.

“This is really creating pressures year after year at many smaller hospitals . . . this is especially a challenge in communities like the Sault and surrounding areas to withstand multiple years of these financial pressures,” Longhurst said.

Locally, Sault Area Hospital has run deficits over two of the past three years. 

At SAH, the wait time for admission to an inpatient bed more than doubled from 24.9 to 51.8 hours for nine out of 10 patients between 2020-21 and 2024-25.

Over that span, wait times for an initial physician assessment similarly spiked from 3.4 hours to 5.5 hours at the local emergency department.

It’s an issue Longhurst said is directly related to funding – and it’s one that impacts northern and western regions the hardest.

Wait times also spiked in Ontario overall, but less so than in the Sault. 

The report said nine out of 10 patients waited from 2.7 to 4.5 hours for initial physician assessment and 29 to 44 hours for an inpatient bed between 2020-21 and 2024-25.

“The significant increase in hospital admission wait times demonstrates a system under quite immense strain, unable to cope with the demand for acute care,” he said.

“The longer patients languish in emergency departments waiting to be admitted, the risks of deteriorating health status increase, and we risk seeing poor outcomes.”

Across the province, six out of 10 smaller hospitals faced deficits in 2024-25, even though they only account for 49 per cent of hospitals in Ontario.

While legislation requires hospitals to not run deficits, many have had to in recent years – taking extraordinary measures to meet operational costs in some cases.

“Because of the dire situation, hospitals have been granted exemptions by the province to run deficits, and many are digging into their working capital, their reserves – some are even taking out private bank loans to fund operations,” Longhurst said.

“Things are bleak in the sector.”

Simply put, these financial shortfalls require more provincial funding to address, Longhurst said.

“I haven’t seen any evidence that hospitals in the Sault and surrounding communities aren’t spending those dollars appropriately,” he said.

“I think the issue that we’re seeing all around is that it’s simply a lack of funding.”

Although Ontario health-care spending climbed from $53.9 billion to $84.8 billion between 2014 and 2023, that spike represents just a 0.2 per cent increase in spending as a share of the economy, the report states.

“In absolute terms, we’re seeing an increase in funding, but when you look at that relative to population growth, aging, inflation, we’re simply not seeing the funding allocated by the provincial government keep pace,” Longhurst said.

“It’s simply not enough.”

Amid the shortfall, Longhurst said staffed hospital beds in Ontario are “far below what is required, and it’s projected to get much worse.”

In 2022, Ontario ranked 33 when compared to 38 OECD countries, and hospital beds are projected to decrease from 220 beds per 100,000 people to to 203 between 2025-26 and 2027-28.

“There’s widespread agreement that Ontario’s hospital sector is the most undersized in Canada, relative to the size of the population, and it’s one of the most under capacity when we compare Ontario with other high-income countries,” Longhurst said.

In order to address the shortfall, Longhurst said an additional $3 billion in provincial funding is needed.

The 2026 provincial budget adds $3.4 in additional health-care spending, leaving the health-care system short $3 billion through the 2026-27 year, the report states.

“It’s a matter of increased funding to stabilize hospital finances and ensure that patients can access the care that they need,” Longhurst said.

The report also recommends developing a provincial health-care workforce strategy and capital plan to help address staffing shortages, improve the workplace environment, and ensure the resource needs of hospitals are met.

When asked why nursing graduates from Ontario are seeking work elsewhere, Longhurst again pointed to funding issues at the provincial level.

“Well, the first thing you do is you create funding to hire them, and that’s exactly the opposite of what’s happening now in Ontario,” he said.

“We are seeing community after community laying off frontline staff, including nurses, because of these budget deficits that hospitals are facing.”

When asked if it’s acceptable that ER wait times are increasing, Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said low-acuity visits are falling, suggesting the government’s efforts to divert non-urgent cases to community settings like primary care and pharmacies are having an impact.

– With files from Tina Yazdani at the Trillium