In a perfect world hospitals would be publicly funded to meet the health needs of their communities. That would be it.
When the government started talking about funding reform, the thinking was that at last we would be moving closer to a rational system of allocation.
What we got instead was a hybrid of global funding, competition, and a funding formula that was supposed to take into consideration both existing usage and local demographics. Layered on top is a base funding freeze to at least 2018. Money has always been a driver in the health system, but suddenly it appears to be driving everything.
The evidence suggests that the complex and confusing system of funding allocation is creating new inequities that may be even worse than the ad hoc system of the past.
The South Bruce Grey Health Centre, for example, has argued to the South West LHIN that they are being penalized for efficiently combining the resources of four small rural hospitals. The Scarborough Hospital and the Rouge Valley Health System have made it clear that the complex demographic needs of their two communities are not being recognized in their base funding allocation.
What the new funding system appears to be doing is driving a new wave of costly and disruptive hospital mergers. You can’t blame the hospitals for seeking such mergers because they are simply acknowledging the new rules of the game set by the province. In this new world bigger gets more clout gets more funding.
OPSEU Diablogue 