LHSC needs additional $99M from province to prevent cuts: Unions

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A new report by a provincial health-care workers’ union estimates London’s largest hospital needs an additional $99 million from the province just to maintain the status quo. 

The report by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), the hospital division of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, projects the provincial government must spend an additional $2 billion to prevent cuts at hospitals, including $99 million at London Health Sciences Centre alone. 

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“The government’s funding doesn’t keep up with inflation, let alone keep up with other staff recruitment and retention issues. We have a permanent state of crisis,” said Michael Hurley, president of the hospital unions council.  

To account for population growth, aging patients, increasing health-care utilization and inflation, the council report estimates provincial funding for Ontario hospitals needs to increase by seven per cent each year.  

Provincial funding accounted for about $1.4 billion of LHSC’s $1.68 billion budget in 2023-24. An increase of seven per cent to the province’s share is approximately $99 million, the report said. 

The Huron Perth Health Care Alliance, which has hospital locations in Stratford, St. Marys, Seaforth and Clinton, needs approximately $11.5 million in provincial funding to maintain service levels, the report said. Windsor Regional Hospital needs $40 million in additional provincial funding, the report said. 

LHSC has made major changes in its top ranks in recent months as it grapples with a $150-million deficit, including terminating 59 managers and demoting 71 others with pay cuts, measures announced on Thursday.  

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While the number of highly paid executives, directors and managers in Ontario hospitals has long been a concern for the hospitals unions council, Hurley said the scope of the health-care underfunding is beyond what individual hospitals can remedy on their own.  

“It requires the government to step up with significant investments,” Hurley said. 

A spokesperson for Health Minister Sylvia Jones said Friday that the provincial government under Premier Doug Ford has made “record investments” in the health-care system, including $85 billion this year, a 31 per cent increase from 2018.  

“We have increased our investment across the hospital sector by four per cent for a record two years in a row,” Hannah Jensen said in an email Friday. 

“Over the last two years, we have registered a record number of new nurses, adding 32,000 new nurses, with another 30,000 studying nursing at one of Ontario’s colleges or universities and since 2018.” 

The province is working on more than 50 hospital development projects and has added 3,500 hospital beds since 2020, Jensen said.  

OCHU/CUPE represents about 30,000 hospital workers provincewide including at hospitals in Guelph and Stratford. The union does not represent workers at LHSC. 

The report compiled data from the Canadian Institute for Health Information, Ontario’s Financial Accountability Office and Ontario Health. 

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