Latest news with #AndrewLonghurst
National Post
20-05-2025
- Health
- National Post
Champlain Region Hospital Spending on For-Profit Staffing Agencies Increased by 134 Per Cent Over 10 Years
Article content OTTAWA, Ontario — A new research report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recommends Ontario significantly increase hospital funding while phasing out costly for-profit staffing agencies and making investments in preventative health care. Article content The report Hollowed Out: Ontario public hospitals and the rise of private staffing agencies shows a co-relation between the dramatic growth in agency usage and underfunding of public hospitals over the last decade. Article content Between 2013-14 and 2022-23, Ontario's hospitals paid out $9.2 billion to for-profit staffing agencies that cost up to three times more than employing in-house hospital workers. Article content 'The use of for-profit staffing agencies is part of a vicious cycle that hollows out the public sector workforce, thereby increasing hospitals' dependence on private agencies,' said Andrew Longhurst, research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of the report. 'The government must take a range of measures to resolve this crisis, but central to that is increasing hospital funding. The wasteful public spending on private agencies would have never emerged as a problem if Ontario's investments in employed hospital staff kept up with patient needs.' Article content Agency workers consumed six per cent of total hospital labour costs despite only accounting for 0.4 per cent of all frontline hours between 2013-14 and 2022-23. Article content In the Champlain region, which includes Ottawa, spending on for-profit agencies increased by 134 per cent over 10 years to a billion dollars a year by 2022-23. Article content In inflation-adjusted dollars, per person public expenditures on hospital employed staff in the Champlain region increased by merely eight per cent while spending on agency staff rose by 74 per cent during the 10-year period. Article content 'Boom for private profits, austerity for public hospitals' Article content The report notes that Ontario's per-capita funding for hospitals is the lowest across Canada. In the period between 2013 and 2022, the Ontario government made real dollar spending cuts in seven out of 10 years, contributing to insufficient growth in staff relative to demand. Article content Longhurst noted that last week's budget promised more of the same as the funding announced for 2025-26 won't match the growing demand for hospital services. Meanwhile, he said the government had allocated $280 million in funding for for-profit operators to perform surgeries and diagnostic tests, even as hospital departments providing those same services were understaffed and underfunded. Article content 'This appears to be the most significant injection of funding into investor-owned facilities over a two-year period outside of Quebec,' Longhurst said. 'It's very concerning to witness the Ontario government pursuing private expansion of health care services at the cost of intensifying the crisis in the public system. It will predictably result in poorer services for Ontarians at a higher cost.' Article content The report documents a 330 per cent increase in hospital job vacancies since 2015, while employed workers' real incomes declined by 13 per cent and agency usage proliferated. Article content The staffing crisis has precipitated a decline in access to care, according to the report, as evidenced by frequent ER closures and long wait-times. Article content 'Saving our hospital services requires an investment in the staff who deliver them,' said Michael Hurley, the president of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). 'The government must commit to staffing standards including nurse-to-patient ratios to ensure manageable workloads, which would allow staff to provide care to the best of their abilities, improve morale and retention, and help stabilize the system.' Article content But the system is instead fracturing due to a combination of rising demand, ballooning agency costs, and provincial underfunding, said Longhurst. As a result, nearly half of hospitals faced a budget deficit in 2023-24 with a majority expected to be in arrears this year. Article content Longhurst recommended that Ontario follow the example of British Columbia and create a public sector staffing agency that provides relief to the most beleaguered hospitals, while phasing out private agencies over three years. Article content Other prescriptions to address the crisis include the development of a health care staffing strategy, and investments in hospital services ($2 billion annual increase) as well as primary and community care. Article content 'We can't afford to underfund much-needed hospital care even as other services are also required,' he said. 'We can have better primary and community care and well-funded hospitals to meet the health care needs of Ontario's residents.' Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
CBC
20-05-2025
- Health
- CBC
Timmins hospital offering some locum doctors more than $4K per day
The Timmins and District Hospital is offering locums more than $4,000 per day in an online recruitment campaign on social media. Locums are visiting doctors who fill in for physicians who are on leave or holidays. Hospitals across northern Ontario rely on locums to keep emergency departments and other important services running. The Timmins and District Hospital is offering internal medicine locums a minimum daily rate of $2,330 along with an additional incentive of $2,000 a day to work at the hospital. The ad also highlights flexible scheduling and paid travel days as incentives for visiting doctors. The hospital says it is looking for "urgent coverage" for the week of June 2 to 8. In a separate ad, the Timmins and District Hospital is offering the same incentives for a general surgery locum, at a minimum daily rate of $2,430 and an additional incentive of $2,000 per day. The hospital says it needs a general surgery locum for June 10 to 12 and for June 19 to 22. "Our hospital is supported through a blend of locum and full-time physicians who support patients in a variety of health services," hospital spokesperson Stephanie Banks said in an email to CBC News. "Occasionally, some gaps occur in our scheduled coverage, and our hospital will offer incentives to close those gaps. Additionally, our hospital also has back-up contingency strategies to ensure the continuity of care for all our patients." Andrew Longhurst, a health policy researcher at Simon Fraser University, says the compensation packages many hospitals offer locums, coupled with a reliance on more expensive agency nurses, is not a long-term plan. "It's not a sustainable model for our public system. It's very costly," he said. Longhurst says a reliance on locums speaks to physician recruitment challenges many hospitals face. Most physicians working in Ontario hospitals are essentially contractors and operate under the fee-for-service model, in which they bill the province for each service they provide. Some work as salaried employees though, which is a model that is more common with certain specialties, such as oncology. "We have a growing body of evidence in Canada that an increasing share of physicians do not want to work as independent contractors," Longhurst said. "They are seeking practice models that better reflect their desire to have more work-life balance, to not be business owners, to not be responsible for running and managing a business, their own clinic."
CTV News
14-05-2025
- Health
- CTV News
Hospitals spent $31.9M on for-profit staffing agencies in Waterloo Region and Wellington County in one year
After a study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives revealed hospitals in Ontario spent billions of dollars on for-profit staff, CTV News is getting a clearer picture of the cost in Waterloo Region and Wellington County. The study was released on Monday and took a close look at the financial statements of the Canadian Institute for Health Information and 134 hospitals. It said hospitals spent $9 billion over a 10-year period. 'What the report finds is that the government's funding and policy decisions are responsible for a serious workforce crisis,' report author Andrew Longhurst said Wednesday in an interview with CTV News Kitchener. According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), hospitals spent $31,901,556 on private agency staff in the Waterloo-Wellington region from 2022 to 2023. Those workers included nurses, allied health professionals and other support staff. 'Perhaps the most troubling finding is that growth in public spending on private agencies has outpaced spending growth on hospital employed staff, and this is the case in Kitchener-Waterloo and the Waterloo-Wellington region,' Longhurst said. When looking at longer-term trends in hiring from private agencies, Longhurst said one thing became clear. 'It was an increase in real per-capita spending over a 10-year period of 177 per cent, versus only a one per cent increase in real per-capita investment in employed hospital staff. There's a mismatch. The hospitals in the Waterloo-Wellington region are increasing their spending much more quickly on agency staff on a real per-capita basis – so adjusted for inflation and adjusted for population – than they are on employed hospital staff. This is not to say that there are more agency staff overall than employed hospital staff, but that the rate of growth in public spending on those agency staff is increasing very rapidly.' Longhurst was also quick to note that some hospitals feel they have no other option, as they are not receiving enough provincial funding to offer adequate wages to attract permanent staff members. 'Many hospitals are really trying to phase out the use of private for-profit staffing agencies, but they are between a rock and a hard place because they are dependent on the provincial government and the funding allocations to be able to increase compensation for permanent staff to be able to recruit and retain. If the provincial government wants to help hospitals out, what they would be doing is increasing funding to them and helping them phase out [for-profit workers] entirely.'
National Post
12-05-2025
- Health
- National Post
New Study Reveals Ontario Spent $9.2 Billion on For-Profit Staffing Agencies Over 10 Years, Blames Crisis on Underinvestment in Hospitals and Preventative Health Care
Article content Article content TORONTO — A new research report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recommends Ontario make significant increases in hospital funding while phasing out costly for-profit staffing agencies and making investments in preventative health care. Article content The report Hollowed Out: Ontario public hospitals and the rise of private staffing agencies shows a co-relation between the dramatic growth in agency usage and underfunding of public hospitals over the last decade. Article content Between 2013-14 and 2022-23, Ontario's hospitals paid out $9.2 billion to for-profit staffing agencies that cost up to three times more than employing in-house hospital workers. Article content Agency workers consumed six per cent of total hospital labour costs despite only accounting for 0.4 per cent of all frontline hours. Over the 10-year period in question, hospitals doubled their spending on staffing agencies while their costs on employed staff rose by merely six per cent. Article content 'The use of for-profit staffing agencies is part of a vicious cycle that hollows out the public sector workforce, thereby increasing hospitals' dependence on private agencies,' said Andrew Longhurst, research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of the report. 'The government must take a range of measures to resolve this crisis, but central to that is increasing hospital funding. The wasteful public spending on private agencies would have never emerged as a problem if Ontario's investments in employed hospital staff kept up with patient needs.' Article content The report notes that Ontario's per-capita funding for hospitals is the lowest across Canada. In the period between 2013 and 2022, the Ontario government made real dollar spending cuts in seven out of 10 years, contributing to insufficient growth in staff relative to demand. Article content The increasingly heavier workloads combined with real dollar wage cuts fueled a 330 per cent increase in job vacancies since 2015. During this period, hospital staff incomes declined by 13 per cent. Article content The staffing crisis has precipitated a decline in access to care, according to the report, as evidenced by frequent ER closures and long wait-times. Article content 'Saving our hospital services requires an investment in the staff who deliver them,' said Michael Hurley, the president of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). 'The government must commit to staffing standards including nurse-to-patient ratios to ensure manageable workloads, which would allow staff to provide care to the best of their abilities, improve morale and retention, and help stabilize the system.' Article content But the system is instead fracturing due to a combination of rising demand, ballooning agency costs, and provincial underfunding, said Longhurst. As a result, nearly half of hospitals faced a budget deficit in 2023-24 with a majority expected to be in arrears this year. Budgetary issues disproportionately impact small and Northern Ontario hospitals. Article content Agency usage varies across the province but has grown in all but one of the 14 regions of Ontario since 2013. In rural and northern regions – where shortages are often most severe – agency costs jumped: they increased by 480 per cent in the North West, by 372 per cent in North Simcoe Muskoka, and by 216 per cent in the North East. Article content Longhurst recommended that Ontario follow the example of British Columbia and create a public sector staffing agency that provides relief to the most beleaguered hospitals, while phasing out private agencies over three years. Article content Other prescriptions to address the crisis include the development of a health care staffing strategy, and investments in hospital services ($2 billion annual increase) as well as primary and community care. Article content 'We can't afford to underfund much-needed hospital care even as other services are also required,' he said. 'We can have better primary and community care and well-funded hospitals to meet the health care needs of Ontario's residents.' Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content Contacts Article content Article content
Business Wire
12-05-2025
- Health
- Business Wire
New Study Reveals Ontario Spent $9.2 Billion on For-Profit Staffing Agencies Over 10 Years, Blames Crisis on Underinvestment in Hospitals and Preventative Health Care
TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--A new research report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recommends Ontario make significant increases in hospital funding while phasing out costly for-profit staffing agencies and making investments in preventative health care. The report Hollowed Out: Ontario public hospitals and the rise of private staffing agencies shows a co-relation between the dramatic growth in agency usage and underfunding of public hospitals over the last decade. Between 2013-14 and 2022-23, Ontario's hospitals paid out $9.2 billion to for-profit staffing agencies that cost up to three times more than employing in-house hospital workers. Agency workers consumed six per cent of total hospital labour costs despite only accounting for 0.4 per cent of all frontline hours. Over the 10-year period in question, hospitals doubled their spending on staffing agencies while their costs on employed staff rose by merely six per cent. 'The use of for-profit staffing agencies is part of a vicious cycle that hollows out the public sector workforce, thereby increasing hospitals' dependence on private agencies,' said Andrew Longhurst, research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and author of the report. 'The government must take a range of measures to resolve this crisis, but central to that is increasing hospital funding. The wasteful public spending on private agencies would have never emerged as a problem if Ontario's investments in employed hospital staff kept up with patient needs.' The report notes that Ontario's per-capita funding for hospitals is the lowest across Canada. In the period between 2013 and 2022, the Ontario government made real dollar spending cuts in seven out of 10 years, contributing to insufficient growth in staff relative to demand. The increasingly heavier workloads combined with real dollar wage cuts fueled a 330 per cent increase in job vacancies since 2015. During this period, hospital staff incomes declined by 13 per cent. The staffing crisis has precipitated a decline in access to care, according to the report, as evidenced by frequent ER closures and long wait-times. 'Saving our hospital services requires an investment in the staff who deliver them,' said Michael Hurley, the president of CUPE's Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). 'The government must commit to staffing standards including nurse-to-patient ratios to ensure manageable workloads, which would allow staff to provide care to the best of their abilities, improve morale and retention, and help stabilize the system.' But the system is instead fracturing due to a combination of rising demand, ballooning agency costs, and provincial underfunding, said Longhurst. As a result, nearly half of hospitals faced a budget deficit in 2023-24 with a majority expected to be in arrears this year. Budgetary issues disproportionately impact small and Northern Ontario hospitals. Agency usage varies across the province but has grown in all but one of the 14 regions of Ontario since 2013. In rural and northern regions – where shortages are often most severe – agency costs jumped: they increased by 480 per cent in the North West, by 372 per cent in North Simcoe Muskoka, and by 216 per cent in the North East. Longhurst recommended that Ontario follow the example of British Columbia and create a public sector staffing agency that provides relief to the most beleaguered hospitals, while phasing out private agencies over three years. Other prescriptions to address the crisis include the development of a health care staffing strategy, and investments in hospital services ($2 billion annual increase) as well as primary and community care. 'We can't afford to underfund much-needed hospital care even as other services are also required,' he said. 'We can have better primary and community care and well-funded hospitals to meet the health care needs of Ontario's residents.' :gv/cope491
