Following the release of the provincial budget on May 15, many industries are taking stock of what it means for them. The healthcare industry is no exception.
Listowel Wingham Hospital Alliance President and CEO Esther Millar says overall, she's happy with the investments into hospitals and primary care, but she recognizes that with a deficit, there are needs that won't be met.
While details on healthcare funding changes are yet to be fully revealed, Millar says challenges remain, like healthcare human resources, including within the LWHA.
"We stabilized quite a bit in terms of some of the recruitment of our health professionals. That being said, we still need quite a few physicians and there's work underway there. So, that challenge continues," Millar shared.
The budget revealed a total health care budget of $91.1 billion. While that is an increase from the $89.3 billion in last year's budget, the amount does not keep up with the rate of inflation. Millar adds that hospitals have been asked to do more with less for a long time now, and she expects that will continue.
"They're going to have to look at how we do that, and do it differently. Make sure we understand the priorities of our communities and we're gonna have to be creative in how we meet those challenges," Millar added.
While the challenge of a lack of human resources remains in the sector, Millar also points out the importance of ensuring a more robust supply chain in the country.
"So that we have Canadian suppliers that we can access easily, because there are Canadian suppliers that can meet that cost pressure, right? So we do need to formalize that a bit so we're not so reliant (on other countries)," Millar emphasized.
Though Millar says she's optimistic about investments in hospitals and primary care, more needs to be done for primary care and long-term care, which Millar says would help ease a lot of pressure on hospitals.
"When hospitals are being pushed to be financially balanced and be good stewards of our funds, we have to make sure that we're using our resources to deliver the care that we're designed to deliver. So, not primary care in our emergency departments, and not providing long-term care in our acute care beds," said Millar.
Millar adds that these issues ring especially true in more remote and rural areas.