CUPE warns hospital crisis has hit boiling point
A new report from CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) says the funds hospitals use to pay the day-to-day bills have plummeted since 2020.
“I think the most startling finding is that hospitals burned through about $2 billion of cash reserves over the last four years and most of them are now in a negative financial position,” says Michael Hurley, OCHU President.
He says it’s called a working capital deficit, noting North Bay’s is at $37.6 million.
Hurley says as a result, many hospitals have been forced to borrow cash to make ends meet, adding operations are being underfunded.
“The contradiction between the government saying they’re going to give them up to 4% when the budget documents say they’re going to get 3.3% and the Ontario Hospital Association calculates their increases in costs at 6.5%,” he says.
CUPE says deliberate underfunding, understaffing and the further privatization of hospital services has led to emergency room closures, higher wait times and reduced quality of care across the province.
“If we want to get people off stretchers, if we want to clear the surgical backlogs and we want to bring occupancy rates down, then we need an investment,” says Hurley. “We would say an investment of about $5 billion over three fiscal years would float up capacity in order to do that.”
The report says hospital operating deficits reached over $400 million in 2025, with North Bay’s at $7.1 million.
Richard Coffinhttps://www.mynorthbaynow.com/Richard Coffin has been a reporter and news anchor on the radio in North Bay for over 25 years. From premiers to people in the neighbourhood, he enjoys connecting with newsmakers and writing stories that matter to area listeners on a variety of topics including healthcare, education, politics, sports and more.
