Last Updated on September 13, 2024 by Owen Fullerton, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) announced on Wednesday that the healthcare network has received an additional $17.5 million in provincial funding.
A release from KHSC says the funding will go towards reducing wait-times, completing infrastructure projects, and providing care to the growing number of patients seen at KHSC locations, but ultimately the funding is primarily going to help keep up with growth that KGH, Hotel Dieu, and other hospitals overseen by KHSC have already been handling.
Chief Operating Officer Dr. Renate Ilse says the hospitals in Kingston are already dealing with the added responsibility, but without additional funding would lose the ability to do so.
“It’s funding to support growth that we’ve already experienced but without it, we would be in pretty pretty rough shape,” Dr. Ilse said.
“It helps us to pay for what we need to do and that that sort of eases the burden on other parts of it. Could we use more? For sure, but we happily take what we can get.”
The funding has been broken down into four categories, with the biggest chunk of $9.7 million dedicated to simply helping accommodate the growing number of patients KHSC serves as far east as Cornwall and west to Peterborough.
KHSC receives those funds through the Growth and Efficiency Model, and Dr. Ilse says because they’ve been able to keep actual costs lower than expected costs, they receive more funding for their efficiency.
She says KHSC punches above its weight, and the size of the hospital gives staff some room to be flexible – and they have to be out of necessity.
“We’re big enough that we are able to find efficiencies and get economies of scale, we’re small and nimble enough that we can change things around,” Dr. Ilse said.
“We flex a lot whereas I think in a larger hospital it’s much more difficult to change…  all our units are full, we do have hall beds and we have patients in unconventional spaces so we have to be efficient in order to get the work done.”
$1.4 million of funding is headed to the cardiac program, and Dr. Ilse says this chunk of funding is just covering the growth of that program after increased demand that has been attributed to the aging population of southeastern Ontario.
$2.6 million is earmarked for increasing patient volumes within KHSC’s MRI and CT imaging suites, allotting KHSC additional operating hours that should allow for shorter wait times.
Finally KHSC is receiving $3.8 million in Health Infrastructure Renewal Funding (HIRF) for infrastructure projects, including external masonry repairs of the Johnson wing and elevator repairs at Hotel Dieu, and roof repairs at KGH.
Dr. Ilse says while $3.8 million sounds like a lot of funding, it pretty quickly dries up.
She says it certainly won’t accomplish the greatest need for KHSC: a newly hospital building in Kingston.
“It sounds like a lot but that will only buy us a couple of elevators, some external masonry, and I believe a roof of one of our wings,” Dr. Ilse said.
“We will have to supplement that substantially with our own funds to address some of the other things because as you know we’re working very hard to get redevelopment approved because we desperately need a new hospital.”
Dr. Ilse says they’ve used 100% of available space at Hotel Dieu and KGH, and are hopeful to create more space by moving some lab work out of the main hospitals and with standalone facilities like the breast imaging center which opened in 2022, but there will be some limitations to what can move.
In KHSC’s news release, CEO and President Dr. David Pichora says the funding infusion shows how important a role KHSC plays in healthcare, and will help to meet the growth they’ve experienced.
“This infusion of funding from the province demonstrates that KHSC plays a vital role as the anchor of southeastern Ontario’s health-care system and is a good steward of taxpayer dollars, efficiently providing specialized services that aren’t available elsewhere in the region,” Dr. Pichora said.
“As our role continues to grow, so too does the volume of patients we serve each year. This funding will also allow us to expand some of our services to better serve our patients and their families.”