Town of Caledon joins call for fair health care funding

The Town of Caledon Council has endorsed a resolution calling on the Ontario government to improve local access to hospital and community health care services by addressing the growing gap in health care funding facing Caledon residents.

"Population-based funding is imperative in order to improve access to local health care services," said Mayor Marolyn Morrison. "Caledon needs to be supported by an equitable system that helps provide our residents with direct access to health care facilities."

The Town of Caledon joins a number of communities who have experienced growth in support of fair health care funding. Currently, Ontario's hospitals are not funded on the basis of population size and the needs of the local residents. As a result, there are significant and growing gaps in per capita funding for hospital services in communities that have experienced growth such as Dufferin- Caledon.

The per capita funding for hospital care in the Central West LHIN is $280 lower than the provincial average. This means that residents may wait longer for hospital care or be forced to seek care outside their communities away from the support of family and friends. (LHINs - or Local Health Integration Networks - are not-for-profit organizations responsible for planning, integrating and funding local health services in 14 different geographic areas of the province.)

"With Dufferin and Caledon's population growing at the rate they are today, we are facing the same pressures as other fast growing communities," said Hon. John McDermid, chair, Headwaters Health Care Centre. "Population-based funding will allow us to meet the needs of our community as we continue to grow."

The Ministry of Health & Long-Term Care currently funds hospitals on an acrossthe board basis where funding increases are evenly distributed, regardless of population growth. In contrast, Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan use a population needs or populationbased funding allocation formula to fund their regionalized health systems. Funding is allocated based on population size and demographics.