Strathroy, Newbury hospitals get Ontario top-up money to fight hallway health care
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Two hospitals in Middlesex County are getting a provincial funding boost to help deal with the fallout of COVID-19 and reduce so-called hallway health care, when patients are backlogged waiting for treatment or hospital beds.
Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital has received an extra $1.39 million in operating funding on top of its latest base from the province, which amounted to nearly $32 million in the last budget year, and Four Counties Health Services in Newbury is getting nearly $200,000 more on top its $9.5-million base.
Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton announced the increases on Aug. 6.
The Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MPP said area families depend on their small-town hospitals to provide a range of health care services and the top-up funding will help to make sure that’s looked after, including challenges posed by the pandemic such as staffing and personal protective equipment issues.
“This funding is going to go a long way to normalize the health care system, to get it back to where it was pre-pandemic,” he said. “But most importantly, what today signifies is that we’re continuing to invest heavily in making rural and small-town health care a priority.”
Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives campaigned on a vow to end hallway health care when they swept to power in 2018.
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