Ontario to boost hospital care budgets in Kingston and Napanee

Today, Monday, May 2, 2022, Hastings-Lennox and Addington MPP Daryl Kramp announced over $37 million to add 105 hospital beds in Kingston, and $15.9 million in additional operating funds this year for Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC), Providence Care, and Lennox and Addington County General Hospital in Napanee.

According to a release from MPP Kramp’s office, the funding breakdown is as follows:

• Kingston Health Sciences will receive an additional $13.6 million starting in 2022/23, an increase of 3.5 per cent to the funding for the last fiscal year;
• Providence Care Centre, also in Kingston, will receive an additional $1.8 million starting in 2022/23, an increase of 2 per cent to funding for the last fiscal year; and,
• Lennox and Addington County General Hospital in Napanee will receive an additional $500,000 starting in 2022/23, an increase of 2 per cent to funding for the last fiscal year.

In the release, the province said that the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that historically, Ontario had not done enough to protect and prepare the province for a crisis. So, as part of the provincial government’s Plan to Stay Open, they are implementing a capital plan expansion with more than 50 major projects that will add 3,000 new beds over 10 years and invest to support the continuation of over 3,100 acute and post-acute beds in hospitals and alternate health care facilities, and hundreds of new adult, pediatric and neonatal critical care beds.

“We are delighted to hear about the additional funding targeted at the Kingston area and look forward to hearing more details of the allocation,” said Dr. David Pichora, President and CEO of KHSC. “Throughout the pandemic, Kingston Health Sciences Centre has repeatedly demonstrated the vital role it plays in anchoring the South Eastern Ontario region. This kind of investment in expansion and renewal is critical in the ongoing advancement of KHSC as a provincial leader among academic health sciences centres.”

As part of this investment:

• Kingston Health Sciences Centre will receive $32,120,000 for 95 new patient beds; and,
• Providence Care Centre will receive $5,110,000 for 10 new patient beds.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our local hospitals — at both the staff and management levels — have gone above and beyond to provide exceptional care to patients and families in our region,” said MPP Kramp. “This new investment is part of our support for high-quality and timely access to health care to ensure we have the capacity to stay open.”

The capital funds are part of the Ontario government’s $827 million additional investment to hospitals across the province, representing a four per cent increase from last year, according to the release. The government said that this will ensure all publicly funded hospitals receive a minimum two per cent increase to their operating budgets to help them better meet patient needs, while building a stronger, more resilient health care system.

The province has invested in Ontario’s hospitals, with overall sector increases four years in a row — $2.5 billion since 2019 — as part of its plan to build a stronger, more resilient health care system which is better able to respond to crisis, according to the release.

To support growing demands on the health care system, the province said that Ontario’s investments over the next 10 years will lead to $40 billion in health infrastructure across the province. According to the release, these investments will increase capacity in hospitals, build new health care facilities, and renew existing hospitals and community health centres. Since the outset of the pandemic, the government has added 777 more intensive-care unit hospital beds with the capacity to now handle 2,448 critical care patients.

“Ontario’s hospitals have been unwavering in their commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of Ontarians, and our government is committed to ensuring that they have the resources needed to recover from the pandemic and meet the ongoing needs of the communities they serve,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By increasing investments in hospitals provincewide, our government is helping to ensure that patients have access to the high-quality care they need, when and where they need it.”