The Chair of the Quinte Health Care Board of Directors is mincing no words when it comes to the board’s position on funding for QHC’s four hospitals.
Stuart Wright said Tuesday that the board will not rest until the provincial government changes its funding formula for rural, multi-site hospitals to make it equitable to other hospital organizations in Ontario.
Wright says QHC hasn’t been funded properly for years, but that on a positive note, Ministry of Health officials and politicians are listening to facts and there’s optimism the funding formula could soon change, providing more base funding locally.
For the first time ever, the Quinte Health Care board actually budgeted for a deficit in its 2019/20 fiscal year. It projected a shortfall of $4.7 million but now, it’s expected to climb to around $6.2 million.
On other subjects, Wright praised the medical staff and management for handling ever increasing numbers of patients and still offering care that most people surveyed find either good or very good.
Wright also said QHC was rated as doing very well in patient care in not one, but two major assessments in the past year.
One was an Operations Assessment and the other was done by Accreditations Canada. That organization gave Quinte Health Care an “exemplary” mark.
The Chair didn’t forget his volunteer board members in his address, saying the board got rolling on major new initiatives in the past year.
Those are the new hospital proposed for Prince Edward County in Picton, the proposed Health Hub to be located near Trenton Memorial Hospital, and a state of the art hospital information system.