Ontario Investing in Hospital Beds to Improve Access to Care

Dr. Eric Hoskins, Minister of Health and Long-Term Care, was at the Reactivation Care Centre, formerly the Humber River Hospital – Finch site, today to announce that the province will be renewing its ongoing support for hospitals to help meet the needs of communities across the province.

Last fall, Ontario provided support to hospitals to open an additional 1,200 beds, increasing capacity during a period of heightened demand. The province also invested in:

• 150 new transitional care beds at the Reactivation Care Centre and created space for additional acute care beds at Mackenzie Health
• 61 new mental health hospital beds
• 6 new long-term ventilation hospital beds.

Ontario is renewing this investment for 2018-19 to continue supporting hospitals by relieving the stress associated with increased demand, giving people greater access to high quality care, closer to home.
Ontario is also investing in more home and community care services and more long-term care beds across the province.

Increasing access to essential health services is part of Ontario’s plan to create fairness and opportunity during this period of rapid economic change. The plan includes a higher minimum wage and better working conditions, free tuition for hundreds of thousands of students, easier access to affordable child care, and free prescription drugs for everyone under 25 through the biggest expansion of medicare in a generation.

Ontario will be providing ongoing support for hospitals and investing $187 million in 2018-19 to make more beds available across the province.
In 2017-18, the province invested $100 million to open more than 1,200 beds to increase capacity in hospitals in advance of the flu season.

In 2017-18, Ontario also provided 200 affordable housing units for seniors who need additional community supports when they are discharged from hospital, and created 578 transitional care spaces outside of hospital for up to 1,700 patients who don’t require care in a hospital.

The province invested an additional $100 million in 2017-18 in home care supports and services.
As part of Aging with Confidence: Ontario’s Action Plan for Seniors, Ontario is committed to create 5,000 long-term care beds over the next four years and more than 30,000 across the province over the next decade.