Breathing space

Provincial money buys time for QHC and the community

When Paul Huras spoke to the POOCH gathering in Picton last month, the Local Health Integration Network chief said he believed the province would come through with additional funding to help Quinte Health Care (QHC) through its current financial crisis.

Last week we learned QHC will receive $3.5 million in additional one-time funding. No one, however, is suggesting this cheque will repair QHC’s broken finances.

Huras explained that QHC has been hurt by the province’s latest hospital funding mechanism. This is partly due to issues relating to the management of a mix of hospitals across four locations, but also because the hospital corporation’s costs, for a range of functions and activities, are generally higher than its peers. The current funding model makes it difficult for QHC to climb out of this hole.

QHC CEO Mary Clare Egberts says the money buys the hospital corporation and the community time to figure out how best to balance its budget.

“We know there are going to be changes,” Egberts said last week. “This gives us time to be really creative, to figure out what it means to have an H on the building.”

Egberts promises a “robust community participation” process to help make this determination. What this means is not yet clear.

Councillor Bill Roberts was among the County representatives including Mayor Robert Quaiff, who met with health minister Dr. Eric Hoskins at a conference in Toronto last week.

Roberts said one-time provincial funding isn’t an answer to QHC’s financial challenges, but he agrees it buys this community time.

“It does give us some breathing space to avoid short-sighted, short-term responses to the financial challenges,” says Roberts. “It is not a panacea, but a gesture by the Ministry to this community to ensure we do this right—without compromising the healthcare needs we have in the County.”

Roberts was encouraged by his meeting with Dr. Hoskins, whom he said was generous with his time, sympathetic to the issues and impressed by the passion in this community.

“He [Hoskins] believes rural and community hospitals are part of the value-added proposition for overall healthcare delivery in rural circumstances,” says Roberts.

Roberts also points to the important work done by MPP Todd Smith in bringing this community’s issues to the attention of the minister of health.

“It was Todd Smith who put the first question to the health minister regarding our hospital,” noted Roberts. “I think that was a very positive engagement, and was instrumental in leading to the announcement last week.”

QHC’s Egberts says all four hospitals within the hospital corporation will remain open with 24- hour emergency rooms.

“We have been given the opportunity to perhaps create something truly unique to meet the long-term health care needs of our communities,” says Egberts.

County residents will be watching closely to see what happens next.