A new report from CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions said Ontario hospitals are underfunded to the tune of $5 billion per year when compared to other provinces<\/p>\n
A new report warns that patient care at Sault Area Hospital will face increasing strain without a major funding boost from the province.<\/p>\n
Published by CUPE\u2019s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, Pushed over the brink: the escalating assault on Ontario\u2019s hospitals reports that Ontario hospitals need an extra $5 billion in annual funding for core services to match the rest of the country.<\/p>\n
At Sault Area Hospital, that translates to an extra $40 million per year to meet the funding per capita seen in other provinces across Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat’s just to get us back to where we were previously, and had been for many decades where we had similar levels of funding as the rest of Canada,\u201d said Doug Allan, senior researcher at CUPE National.<\/p>\n
Instead, union officials say hospital expenses have consistently climbed around six per cent per year while provincial funding increases have been held to three to four per cent in recent years \u2013 leading to a precarious situation where hospitals are understaffed, shedding working capital, and running deficits.<\/p>\n
While Ontario hospitals had $2 billion in working capital to cover daily expenses as recently as 2020, that figure plummeted to negative $280 million by the end of 2025<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the Sault, the working capital the hospital has is negative $13.5 million. That’s a problem for them to come up with,\u201d Allan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey may have to do things like borrow money. It’s not ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locally, where hospital beds average 94-per-cent occupancy, an extra 470 full time staff would be needed to meet the national average, along with 55,000 additional staff across Ontario.<\/p>\n
However, under the province\u2019s Hospital Sector Stabilization Plan, 1,300 jobs have been cut since last September province-wide, even as hallway health care numbers continue to climb.<\/p>\n