More provincial money will help provide sustainability at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance. 
Last week, the Ford government announced an additional $68-million funding to support small and medium sized hospitals across the province.
$1.73-million of that is being directed to the CKHA, which CEO Lori Marshall says gives extra protection to core services for residents across Chatham-Kent.
“Small hospitals, regardless of the number of patients coming through the emergency department, you still have to have the lights on, you have to have a certain amount of base staffing, you have to be able to provide the services to the community when they need them,” Marshall says. “When you are a bit smaller size, both medium and small sized hospitals, it is more difficult to do that in a very cost-effective manner.”
Along with the core services, Marshall says they’re also looking into creating a virtual unit, providing care involving other health service partners in the community.
“Every year we see escalation of our costs and that does relate to inflationary pressures of costs of supplies, collective agreements and those kind of things,” Marshall explains. “I would also say the nature of how health care is delivered is continuing to evolve, so that’s what’s helping us to be able to manage.”
This new funding is on top of the $384-million that Ontario’s hospitals received this year as part of the province’s 2019 budget.
