ONTARIO—The provincial government is prioritizing the health and safety of patients by taking immediate action and providing 128 hospitals, including the Manitoulin Health Centre (MHC), with funding to upgrade, repair and maintain their facilities.
On Tuesday, Christine Elliott, deputy premier and Minister of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC), was at the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa to announce an investment of $175 million that will help hospitals continue to ensure a safe and comfortable environment for patients to receive care.
Lynn Foster, president and chief executive officer of MHC, told The Recorder on Wednesday, “we are receiving approximately $355,000 in funding.”
She explained, “first of all I should talk about the program that was put in place some years ago. The Ministry (MOHLTC) had engineers inspect every hospital building in the province.” She noted both MHC hospital sites in Little Current and Mindemoya were inspected and funding that is received is applied equally for the two sites. From there, an audit list of what was needed in each building was created under the capacity planning and capital branch, so hospitals would be able access funds that had been put on this needs list.
“This all pertains to bricks and mortar, and takes in the age of the hospital,” said Ms. Foster, “with health and safety being the top priority in the program.”
“So under the master list, hospitals such as ours make annual applications for funding, and this is submitted to the (North East) LHINs (Local Health Integrated Networks) to be endorsed,” continued Ms. Foster.
For 2018-2019 under the Health Capital Investment Branch of the ministry, MHC received its funding. “We decided to focus some of this funding to repairing the roof at the Little Current site and doing repairs on the asphalt at the Mindemoya site,” said Ms. Foster. “I also want to mention if some funds remain we will use it to upgrade the door security at both hospital sites.”
“The health and safety of patients and families is a priority for our government,” said Ms. Elliott. “That’s why we must make the necessary investments in our hospitals now to ensure our providers have the facilities they need to continue to provide excellent quality care to patients. This funding will help ensure hospitals across Ontario are able to make the needed upgrades, improvements and maintenance so patients and families have access to reliable quality care they expect and deserve.”
The government is moving forward quickly to address challenges facing the healthcare system as it develops a long-term transformational health care strategy to end hallway healthcare, the MOHLTC release notes. As this important work continues, this funding will allow hospitals to address urgent issues, including upgrades or replacements of roofs, windows, heating and air conditioning systems, fire alarms and back-up generators.
