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Hamilton Health Sciences considers closing a hospital
(Hamilton Spectator, Joanna Frketich, Mar 1 2016)

Hamilton Health Sciences is considering closing at least one large hospital in the next 10 years.

"We are thinking hard about whether or not our current physical footprint is appropriate and sustainable," CEO Rob MacIsaac told a group of stakeholders at a summit to get feedback on HHS' 20-year vision expected to be finalized in June.

Instead, HHS wants to shift care to smaller clinics in neighbourhoods that need it most. MacIsaac also envisions virtual clinics where Hamiltonians can get care in their own living room. And he wants to partner with community agencies to provide care together.

"There should probably be 100 points of access to the hospital," said MacIsaac. "You shouldn't necessarily have to walk through the doors of a big huge health care institution in order to avail yourself of our expertise, our knowledge and our services."

HHS is currently one of the largest hospital networks in Ontario compromised of seven hospitals on six sites, three centres and one research institute with a budget of more than $1 billion.

"As some of our buildings age and require replacement we would be thinking about whether we could consolidate into fewer sites," MacIsaac told The Spectator, saying he'd like to get the number of large hospitals down to two or three.

"It's a 20-year-plan. I don't see us doing anything hugely significant for a decade in terms of that side of the equation."

But he wants to get started right away on creating smaller clinics in the community that would provide care cheaper and closer to home.


Read it in full here.


These pressures are not exactly a surprise, having been repeatedly flagged by the province's go-to economist over over the last few years.

The issue appears to be primarily one of allocating finite resources: In 2014, the Canadian Institute for Health Information's National Health Expenditure Trends, 1975 to 2014 noted:

The public sector is forecast to be responsible for 70.5% of Canadian health expenditure in 2014. The public sector’s share is expected to be the highest in the territories (ranging from 75.4% in Yukon to 92.3% in Nunavut) and the lowest in Ontario (68.1%). Provincial and territorial governments’ health expenditure per capita is expected to average $3,960 in 2014. The highest per capita spending among the provinces is projected to be in Newfoundland and Labrador ($5,087) and Alberta ($4,699), while the lowest is forecast to be in Quebec ($3,660) and Ontario ($3,768)…. Quebec and Ontario are projected to have the lowest per capita spending on hospitals, at $1,487 and $1,665, respectively….For physician spending, the highest per capita spending among the provinces is projected to be in Alberta ($1,060) and Ontario ($989), while the lowest is forecast to be in Prince Edward Island ($751) and New Brunswick ($791).