September 21, 2007/- Whig-Standard Editorial

The Kingston Hospitals Foundation has been a bit publicity-shy about its pending request to city council for money. It needn't be so bashful.

While eyebrows should be arched at the request, which is expected to be for some $10 million over several years, it's not the foundation that's at fault for seeking this sum. It's the wheezing health care structure of Ontario.

Officials at Kingston General Hospital have been on a whirlwind publicity tour of late, trying to explain how bad a state the institution is in because of chronic funding shortages. KGH's publicity drive coincides, not accidentally, with the provincial election.
As an example of what the hospital is trying to get across, an easy-to-read pamphlet notes that:

• KGH's lack of critical care beds means it can't tend to 65 per cent of the most critically ill or hurt people in the region.
• It cancels one in five surgeries due to lack of resources;
• It takes on more patient care each year, but the full costs of the expansion aren't covered. (This makes the situation a bit like a private business selling items at a loss but saying it'll make things up on volume.)

Patients are coming into the hospital sicker as the region's population ages. That means they need more care (and are more expensive on average) than they've ever been.

Redevelopment projects are happening at the area's three hospitals (the foundation fundraises for all of them), but the province, which is responsible for health care, doesn't cover all costs of such updating. Ten per cent must still come from the community in question, which must also pay for equipment that goes with any new wing built. Hence the hope of the foundation is that Kingston councillors will pitch in generously from the local tax coffers after they receive a formal request for help at their Oct. 2 meeting. According to a foundation advisory issued yesterday, the amount sought will probably be between $2 and $3 per household per month, spread over many years.

Councillors are already, and rightly, debating taxation levels for next year, but there can be little doubt this "ask" is legitimate. The point is worth underscoring, because Kingston council hasn't always been kind to hospital fundraisers. Back in the early 1990s, council said it would donate $1 million to Kingston General Hospital over 10 years. After it had paid about $150,000, the city tried to wriggle out of the deal. The argument went to court, and eventually city councillors voted to make good on the commitment. There should be no prevaricating this time.

Most taxpayers would likely agree, but that doesn't make anyone feel better about taxation levels related to health care. Ontario spends 46 cents of every program dollar on health care now, and if Kingston chips in, there will effectively be three different health taxes: basic provincial income tax, the health care premium, and some small portion of your municipal property tax. And critical cases will still be turned away from the region's acute-care hospital; surgeries will still be cancelled.

Hospital administrators meeting with the Whig-Standard yesterday politely dodged a question about where future monies should come from, and how much might be needed. These are political questions, they said, which must be resolved by our politicians.

Those would be the people vying to run this province after Oct. 10. Ask them some hard questions. The health of your hospitals is at stake.