Ontario Providing More Funding for Hospital Care and New Beds in Oxford

New investments will ensure local families have access to high-quality health care

WOODSTOCK — Today, Ernie Hardeman, MPP for Oxford, announced that the following hospitals in Oxford will receive additional operating funding this fiscal year:

Woodstock Hospital will receive an additional $2.1 million starting in 2022/23, which represents an increase of 2.4 per cent to funding last fiscal
Alexandra Hospital will receive an additional $300,000 starting in 2022/23, which represents an increase of 2 per cent to funding last fiscal
Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital will receive an additional $500,000, starting in 2022/23, which represents an increase of 2 per cent to funding last fiscal

This is part of the Ontario government’s $827 million additional investment to hospitals across the province, representing a four per cent increase from last year. This will ensure all publicly funded hospitals receive a minimum two per cent increase to their operating budgets to help them better meet patient needs, while building a stronger, more resilient health care system.

“Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our local hospitals have gone above and beyond to provide exceptional care to patients and families in Oxford,” said Hardeman. “This new investment is just one way Ontario is supporting high-quality and timely access to health care to ensure we have the capacity to stay open.”

In addition, as part of its plan to stay open, the government is investing $2,044,000 for 4 new patient beds at Tillsonburg District Memorial Hospital and $7,655,000 for 15 new patient beds at Woodstock Hospital. These new beds are part of a capital plan expansion with more than 50 major projects that will add 3,000 new beds over 10 years and support the continuation of over 3,100 acute and post-acute beds in hospitals and alternate health care facilities, and hundreds of new adult, paediatric and neonatal critical care beds. Since the outset of the pandemic, the government has added 777 more intensive-care unit hospital beds with the capacity to now handle 2,448 critical care patients.

This is in addition to the funding previously announced for Woodstock and Tillsonburg hospitals under the Surgical Innovation Fund. That funding included $124,000 for Woodstock Hospital and almost $300,000 for Tillsonburg to address barriers to surgeries.

Over the last four years, the Ontario government has made significant investments in Ontario’s hospitals as part of its plan to build a stronger, more resilient health care system that is better able to respond to crisis. This includes overall sector increases four years in a row, representing a total provincial investment of $2.5 billion since 2019.

“Ontario’s hospitals have been unwavering in their commitment to protect the health and wellbeing of Ontarians, and our government is committed to ensuring that they have the resources needed to recover from the pandemic and meet the ongoing needs of the communities they serve,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “By increasing investments in hospitals provincewide, our government is helping to ensure that patients have access to the high-quality care they need, when and where they need it.”

QUICK FACTS

To support growing demands on the health care system, Ontario’s investments over the next 10 years will lead to $40 billion in health infrastructure across the province. These investments will increase capacity in hospitals, build new health care facilities, and renew existing hospitals and community health centres.

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES