Simcoe County will inject $45 million into hospital expansions over the next 15 years.
That, however, isn’t as much as the Simcoe County Hospital Alliance wants. The CEOs of the seven hospitals that serve the region asked for $60 million for capital projects over the next two decades.
Up until now, the county provided $30 million a year for a decade. This is the first time the hospital alliance asked for a longer-term commitment from the county taxpayers, to 2037.
But county councillors struggled with committing $60 million over so many years; even the 15-year commitment had some politicians concerned.
“In 10 years, we’ll be more concerned with palliative care and hospice care,” said Midland Mayor Gord McKay, who highlighted how the county’s population is aging.
“I don’t think we need to fund any further out than 10 years.”
In advocating for the 20-year commitment, Simcoe County Hospital Alliance chair Guy Chartrand – who is also CEO of Collingwood General and Marine – said his hospital and Stevenson Memorial in Alliston are both going through major redevelopments that will take years.
In the meantime, other member hospitals are continuing work on expanding programs such as cardiac care, mental health, dialysis and diagnostic imaging services.
“There’s a lot of pressures over the next 10 to 20 years regarding redevelopment projects,” Chartrand said. “We worked hard to create an equitable fix for all hospitals.
“We stretched this to a 20-year plan. There’s so much pressure and so much required to develop.
“Given the high level of resources for (Stevenson and Collingwood General and Marine), we didn’t want to choke the other hospitals and take all the money.”
That’s why the hospitals came up with the proposal to secure more municipal money each year for the long term, he explained.
He then made a business case for the investment.
“We provide support to over 1.2 million patients per years, had over 53,000 surgical cases and almost 4,600 births,” Chartrand said, adding the seven hospitals employ more than 8,000 people and 1,500 physicians have patient care privileges.
The hospitals’ $1 billion per year in annual operating costs have an economic spin-off of $589 million per year in the region.
Chartrand added the hospitals provide care not only for local residents, but tourists; the split is approximately 86 per cent local about almost 15 per cent tourists.
“From an economic perspective, they have a huge economic impact,” he said, citing the beaches and the ski hills. “(Tourists) spend a lot of money and they do rely on our hospitals to provide care.”
Chartrand went on to describe the pressures the Collingwood hospital faces and the ongoing discussions with the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.
Not only is the hospital old and outdated, more people are coming for care – tourists and residents alike.
“Because of new standards for hospitals, our size will have to double,” he said, and rising caseloads push the needs even higher. His expansion plan triples the size of the hospital.
In the hospital alliance’s ask for $30 million over the next decade, his hospital would receive $10 million.
And as he discusses this with health ministry officials, he said local support really does matter.
In Alliston, the hospital is planning a two-storey addition, then renovate the existing hospital for outpatient programs. Of the $30 million request, it would receive $5 million.
Still, the RVH in Barrie, Southlake, Waypoint, Orillia Soldiers Memorial and Georgian Bay General need continuing funding to keep upgrading.
The remaining $15 million funding over the next decade breaks down with RVH getting almost $5.6 million, Georgian Bay General $3.16 million, Southlake $2.7 million, Soldiers Memorial $2.3 million and Waypoint Centre for Mental Health $1.29 million.
There were no details provided on how the hospital alliance would distribute the $30 million in the decade beginning in 2027.
County councillors debated over whether to extend the funding to 20 years; some felt 10 was enough and they compromised on the 15-year term, although Warden Gerry Marshall urged councillors to think big-picture and long term.
“These (redevelopment) conversations take eight, 10 or 12 years,” he said. “We should go 20 years. We act as a county and think long, think decades out.”
Chartrand stressed that the hospital alliance members are working together, because they each recognize the standards and needs for care, now and as the region grows.
“We are not in the business of creating massive forts for ourselves,” Chartrand said.
“It’s important to do this as a system, to being all seven hospitals together forces us to think as a system and design it.”
