Province promises $822M increase in hospital funding

The Ontario Liberals promised an additional $822-millionfor hospitals in 2018-19 Thursday.

Premier Kathleen Wynnemade thepledge as part of the provincial pre-election budget, which will be unveiled on March 28.

The money would go toward a 4.6 per cent increase in funding for hospitals. Last year's budget saw an increase of 3.2 per cent.

The money is intended to reduce wait times, address province-wide overcrowding issues and prepare for an increase in aging patients.

• Ontario Liberals promise $822M in new funding to boost hospital care

Windsor Regional Hospital president and CEO DavidMusyjcalled it a"significant" announcement.

However, he cautioned it's not as simple as taking 4.6 per cent and multiplying it by the hospital's provincial funding or its overall budget.

"You hear 4.6 but truly the devil's in the details with respect to how that works," he said.

"When you do all the math based on last year (3.2 per cent increase), we received approximately 1.8 per cent of that," he explained. That translated into $5.6 million for the 2017-18 fiscal year.

"It really is far more complicated to come up with an actual dollar amount for us," he said.

Musyjdid say that a rough calculation, based on last year's increase, would mean "we're looking at an additional $8 million (for the 2018-19 fiscal year)."

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"At a minimum, it should be that," he said, adding that North York General Hospital, which is 20 per cent smaller than WRH, will receive $10.8 million based on this formula, according to Wynne's announcement which used North York as an example.

"They're performing well, we're performing well," Musyj said. "You would think we're entitled to at least that."

The bottomline is it's positive news, said Musyj, but adds his organization will not play the political game.

"We will continue to work with whatever party is elected and we will continue to work with our local MPPs like we've done whether they are in the party that's governing or not," he said. "If in August some premier, existing one, new one, comes in and says change the way things are going, we'll deal with that when it happens."