The CEO of the Huron-Perth Healthcare Alliance says there was some good news for hospitals in this week's provincial budget.
But Andrew Williams also points out individual hospitals won't know where they stand until they see the details. Williams explains the 1% increase to smaller rural hospitals is something the hospitals in Clinton, Seaforth and St. Marys have been receiving for a few years now, but it was encouraging to have that confirmed for another year.
He adds the 1% for larger hospitals like the Stratford site was also encouraging. But he says while any increase after four years of frozen funding is good news, the increase still doesn't keep pace with inflation, and hospitals are still forced to take a very critical look at how they deliver service.
Williams says costs for hospitals are going up at least 2% to 3% each year, so every year they're losing ground and having to balance the community's expectations of service against the limited resources that are available to them.
