KINGSTON, ON – Although Kingston’s population is aging and Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC), even before the flu season hits fully, is consistently struggling with patient overcrowding, Ontario’s Conservative government is planning multiple years of deep budget cuts to hospitals.
“What’s coming will be bigger because the cuts compound,” says Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
Hurley and Barbara DeRoche the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) 1974 at KHSC will hold a media conference at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 26, 2019, at Kingston City Hall (Councillor’s Lounge).
They will release projected provincial funding shortfalls for the Kingston hospital based on Conservative fiscal plans to 2023.
The Conservative’s April 2019 budget cut hospital operating costs in real terms by almost 3 per cent. Recognizing hospital funding was too low, in October, the Doug Ford PCs increased funding marginally for small and mid-sized hospitals. Despite that small influx of funding, the PC cuts (based on the spring 2019 budget) build to 14.7 per cent by 2023.
The demographic indicator is that Kingston’s senior population is increasing. Over the next two decades, the share of seniors in the Kingston population is projected at between 30 and 35 per cent.
“There will be more people using the health system – and hospitals, in particular – not fewer. Although the Premier has said his Conservative government will end hallway health care within a year, Kingston hospital patients will face increasing overcrowding and care in hospital corridors. But it doesn’t stop there because these cuts are projected to continue to 2023,” says Hurley.
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For more information, please contact:
Michael Hurley, President, OCHU/CUPE ( www.ochu.on.ca ), 416-884-0770
Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, 416-559-9300, [email protected]
