“Ontario has cut hospital beds to a point that is unsustainable,” said Mehra in an interview Monday with CBC News. There are about 2.4 beds for every 1,000 people in the province, fewer than the Canadian average and fewer than nearly every other Western country\u00a0with socialized medicine, according to\u00a0these figures<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.<\/p>\n While Mehra supports the idea of using the\u00a0Humber\u00a0River site to increase bed capacity, she is concerned the move is a Band-Aid solution.<\/p>\n The Ontario Hospital Association blames the acute-care overcrowding on a shortage of available long-term care and home care.<\/p>\n “The root of today’s capacity challenge is that far too many frail elderly patients can’t get access to the care they really need outside the hospital setting,” said Dale in his statement.<\/p>\n The latest figures available from Health Quality Ontario show the typical hospital patient in need of\u00a0long-term care spends 68 days waiting, a figure that has risen steadily over the past decade.<\/p>\n Ontario’s auditor general has also\u00a0warned<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0that too many patients who should be in long-term care are unnecessarily occupying hospital beds.<\/p>\n Health Ministry officials were unable Tuesday to provide any figures about\u00a0how many patients the Humber\u00a0River site would serve, how much it could cost to operate, or how long it would remain open.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Health Ministry looking at old Humber River Regional building as intermediate care site<\/h3>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/humber-river-hospital-closed-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Finch Avenue site of the Humber River Regional Hospital in Toronto is no longer being used, after a new facility was opened in 2015. (S\u00e9bastien St-Francois\/Radio-Canada)<\/em><\/h6>\nOntario is considering a plan to urgently transform a mothballed hospital site in Toronto into a temporary source of beds as a result of overcrowded hospital wards, the province’s health minister confirmed Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Eric Hoskins said the government is working on a plan to staff one of the former locations of Humber River Regional Hospital to relieve pressure on acute-care wards across the Greater Toronto Area. The plan could start in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
Ontario hospitals warn of ‘capacity crisis’ after summer bed shortage
\nSpike in patient numbers has Ontario hospitals bursting at seams
\nThe Health Ministry is also considering a similar path with facilities elsewhere in Ontario.<\/p>\n
“We’re having a number of conversations with other hospitals across the province that have come forward,” Hoskins said. “They have ideas and suggestions and proposals of their own.”<\/p>\n
This comes as the umbrella group representing the province’s hospitals predicts a capacity crisis across Ontario unless urgent action is taken before the winter flu season.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/eric-hoskins-sept-27-300x188.png\")
<\/p>\n
Health Minister Eric Hoskins said using the old Humber River Regional building would make 150 beds available for non-acute patients. (Mike Cole\/CBC)<\/em><\/h6>\nThe Humber River Regional’s old Finch Avenue building was closed in 2015 when a new hospital was built. It would be used as an intermediate-care facility, and would accept patients who are occupying beds in Toronto-area hospitals while waiting for some other form of care, such as a nursing home or rehab bed.<\/p>\n
Hoskins said using the facility would make 150 beds available for non-acute patients.<\/p>\n
“In the spring budget, we allocated $24 million to look at how we could provide better, higher-quality support to individuals \u2014 many of them seniors who are currently in hospital,” Hoskins said.<\/p>\n
“It will ready many of them for going home, and going home in a better state,” he said.<\/p>\n
During question period in Toronto today, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns\u00a0disputed that.<\/p>\n
“Will the premier explain how a facility that wasn’t good enough for patients two years ago will be good enough for vulnerable seniors now?” Tabuns asked.<\/p>\n
“We’re dealing with numbers in the many thousands, and so 150 beds I don’t think is going to solve this crisis. This crisis has been building for a long time. You’re going to have to have ongoing, sustained investment in the healthcare system and the hospitals if you’re actually going to deal with this.”<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/peter-tabuns-sept-27-300x203.png\")
<\/p>\n
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns says Ontario is facing a ‘crisis in care.’ (Mike Cole\/CBC)<\/em><\/h6>\n“I do think there’s a general concern that we have hallway medicine right now,”\u00a0PC leader\u00a0Patrick Brown told reporters Wednesday. “We have a crisis at our hospitals and the government’s been asleep at the switch.”<\/p>\n
Nearly 3,000 beds in Ontario hospitals (about 16 per cent of the total) are currently occupied by “alternate level of care” patients: they do not need to be in acute care, and have been officially discharged, but remain in hospital because the actual level of care they need is not available.<\/p>\n
The ripple effect in hospitals keeps other patients waiting as far up the line as the emergency room.<\/p>\n
This summer, wait times for patients admitted through emergency departments hit the\u00a0highest monthly level<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0recorded since the province started measuring this nine years ago, according to the Ontario Hospital Association.<\/p>\nThat is prompting\u00a0fears of significantly longer\u00a0wait times and overcrowding when flu season hits.<\/p>\n
“There just\u00a0simply\u00a0isn’t enough capacity to deal with the\u00a0existing\u00a0patients, let alone a\u00a0winter\u00a0surge,” said Natalie\u00a0Mehra,\u00a0executive\u00a0director of the Ontario Health Coalition, whose members include\u00a0health-care unions and patient advocacy groups.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/humber-river-closed-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
More than 15 per cent of patients in Ontario’s hospitals are occupying acute-care beds they don’t need, according to the most recent statistics available from the Ministry of Health. (S\u00e9bastien St-Francois\/Radio-Canada)<\/em><\/h6>\n“Conditions\u00a0strongly suggest that the health-care system faces a real capacity crisis this winter without further action,” said Ontario Hospital Association president Anthony Dale in a statement\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The capacity crunch in hospitals started to bite last winter but continued throughout 2017. Reports emerged of hospital horror stories across Ontario:<\/p>\n
\n- A woman suffering internal bleeding\u00a0spent\u00a0five days in a hallway<\/a><\/strong>at Brampton Civic Hospital.<\/li>\n
- An 84-year-old patient spent\u00a0three weeks in the TV lounge<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at Health Sciences North in Sudbury.<\/li>\n
- Backlogs of\u00a060\u00a0patients jammed into\u00a0the ER<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa.<\/li>\n
- Hospitals over capacity in\u00a0Waterloo<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0region,\u00a0Hamilton<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Windsor<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
MPP calls situation a ‘crisis’<\/h2>\n
The root causes of the capacity crunch are a matter of debate.<\/p>\n
Tabuns\u00a0said for 14 years, the Liberal government has “either underfunded or frozen hospital budgets, creating the crisis in care that we’re facing now.”<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition\u00a0also blames underfunding.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/natalie-mehra-ontario-health-coalition-300x169.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
‘There just simply isn’t enough capacity to deal with the existing patients, let alone a winter surge,” says Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. (CBC)<\/h6>\n\n
\nSpike in patient numbers has Ontario hospitals bursting at seams
\nThe Health Ministry is also considering a similar path with facilities elsewhere in Ontario.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nThe Humber River Regional’s old Finch Avenue building was closed in 2015 when a new hospital was built. It would be used as an intermediate-care facility, and would accept patients who are occupying beds in Toronto-area hospitals while waiting for some other form of care, such as a nursing home or rehab bed.<\/p>\n
Hoskins said using the facility would make 150 beds available for non-acute patients.<\/p>\n
“In the spring budget, we allocated $24 million to look at how we could provide better, higher-quality support to individuals \u2014 many of them seniors who are currently in hospital,” Hoskins said.<\/p>\n
“It will ready many of them for going home, and going home in a better state,” he said.<\/p>\n
During question period in Toronto today, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns\u00a0disputed that.<\/p>\n
“Will the premier explain how a facility that wasn’t good enough for patients two years ago will be good enough for vulnerable seniors now?” Tabuns asked.<\/p>\n
“We’re dealing with numbers in the many thousands, and so 150 beds I don’t think is going to solve this crisis. This crisis has been building for a long time. You’re going to have to have ongoing, sustained investment in the healthcare system and the hospitals if you’re actually going to deal with this.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
NDP MPP Peter Tabuns says Ontario is facing a ‘crisis in care.’ (Mike Cole\/CBC)<\/em><\/h6>\n“I do think there’s a general concern that we have hallway medicine right now,”\u00a0PC leader\u00a0Patrick Brown told reporters Wednesday. “We have a crisis at our hospitals and the government’s been asleep at the switch.”<\/p>\n
Nearly 3,000 beds in Ontario hospitals (about 16 per cent of the total) are currently occupied by “alternate level of care” patients: they do not need to be in acute care, and have been officially discharged, but remain in hospital because the actual level of care they need is not available.<\/p>\n
The ripple effect in hospitals keeps other patients waiting as far up the line as the emergency room.<\/p>\n
This summer, wait times for patients admitted through emergency departments hit the\u00a0highest monthly level<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0recorded since the province started measuring this nine years ago, according to the Ontario Hospital Association.<\/p>\nThat is prompting\u00a0fears of significantly longer\u00a0wait times and overcrowding when flu season hits.<\/p>\n
“There just\u00a0simply\u00a0isn’t enough capacity to deal with the\u00a0existing\u00a0patients, let alone a\u00a0winter\u00a0surge,” said Natalie\u00a0Mehra,\u00a0executive\u00a0director of the Ontario Health Coalition, whose members include\u00a0health-care unions and patient advocacy groups.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than 15 per cent of patients in Ontario’s hospitals are occupying acute-care beds they don’t need, according to the most recent statistics available from the Ministry of Health. (S\u00e9bastien St-Francois\/Radio-Canada)<\/em><\/h6>\n“Conditions\u00a0strongly suggest that the health-care system faces a real capacity crisis this winter without further action,” said Ontario Hospital Association president Anthony Dale in a statement\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The capacity crunch in hospitals started to bite last winter but continued throughout 2017. Reports emerged of hospital horror stories across Ontario:<\/p>\n
\n- A woman suffering internal bleeding\u00a0spent\u00a0five days in a hallway<\/a><\/strong>at Brampton Civic Hospital.<\/li>\n
- An 84-year-old patient spent\u00a0three weeks in the TV lounge<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at Health Sciences North in Sudbury.<\/li>\n
- Backlogs of\u00a060\u00a0patients jammed into\u00a0the ER<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa.<\/li>\n
- Hospitals over capacity in\u00a0Waterloo<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0region,\u00a0Hamilton<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Windsor<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
MPP calls situation a ‘crisis’<\/h2>\n
The root causes of the capacity crunch are a matter of debate.<\/p>\n
Tabuns\u00a0said for 14 years, the Liberal government has “either underfunded or frozen hospital budgets, creating the crisis in care that we’re facing now.”<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition\u00a0also blames underfunding.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
‘There just simply isn’t enough capacity to deal with the existing patients, let alone a winter surge,” says Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. (CBC)<\/h6>\n\n
That is prompting\u00a0fears of significantly longer\u00a0wait times and overcrowding when flu season hits.<\/p>\n
“There just\u00a0simply\u00a0isn’t enough capacity to deal with the\u00a0existing\u00a0patients, let alone a\u00a0winter\u00a0surge,” said Natalie\u00a0Mehra,\u00a0executive\u00a0director of the Ontario Health Coalition, whose members include\u00a0health-care unions and patient advocacy groups.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
More than 15 per cent of patients in Ontario’s hospitals are occupying acute-care beds they don’t need, according to the most recent statistics available from the Ministry of Health. (S\u00e9bastien St-Francois\/Radio-Canada)<\/em><\/h6>\n“Conditions\u00a0strongly suggest that the health-care system faces a real capacity crisis this winter without further action,” said Ontario Hospital Association president Anthony Dale in a statement\u00a0earlier this month.<\/p>\n
The capacity crunch in hospitals started to bite last winter but continued throughout 2017. Reports emerged of hospital horror stories across Ontario:<\/p>\n
\n- A woman suffering internal bleeding\u00a0spent\u00a0five days in a hallway<\/a><\/strong>at Brampton Civic Hospital.<\/li>\n
- An 84-year-old patient spent\u00a0three weeks in the TV lounge<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at Health Sciences North in Sudbury.<\/li>\n
- Backlogs of\u00a060\u00a0patients jammed into\u00a0the ER<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0at Lakeridge Health in Oshawa.<\/li>\n
- Hospitals over capacity in\u00a0Waterloo<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0region,\u00a0Hamilton<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0Windsor<\/a><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
MPP calls situation a ‘crisis’<\/h2>\n
The root causes of the capacity crunch are a matter of debate.<\/p>\n
Tabuns\u00a0said for 14 years, the Liberal government has “either underfunded or frozen hospital budgets, creating the crisis in care that we’re facing now.”<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition\u00a0also blames underfunding.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
‘There just simply isn’t enough capacity to deal with the existing patients, let alone a winter surge,” says Natalie Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. (CBC)<\/h6>\n\n
MPP calls situation a ‘crisis’<\/h2>\n
The root causes of the capacity crunch are a matter of debate.<\/p>\n
Tabuns\u00a0said for 14 years, the Liberal government has “either underfunded or frozen hospital budgets, creating the crisis in care that we’re facing now.”<\/p>\n
The Ontario Health Coalition\u00a0also blames underfunding.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n