New funding will help SAH with surgical backlog, deficit

The bad news is that COVID-19 caused a backlog in surgical procedures at Sault Area Hospital (SAH), the facility is also looking at an unbalanced budget due to revenue loss in its current fiscal year.

The good news is that the Ontario government, in its budget released Wednesday, is promising financial aid to COVID-battered hospitals across the province.

Health funding has been upped to $69.8 billion, hospitals to get an extra $1.8 billion to help ease pressures caused by the pandemic.

SAH, like other Ontario hospitals, doesn’t yet know how much of that funding it will receive, or when, said Lil Silvano, SAH vice president and chief financial officer.

“(But) we are obviously happy with the news, knowing that there are designated funds,” Silvano said, speaking to SooToday Friday.

Silvano said details of government aid will hopefully be known by the hospital “within the next few weeks.”

“For us it’s about balancing (SAH’s budget).”

“All in all, I think we’re not unfamiliar with the fact that the likelihood of an unbalanced budget this year is very high,” said Trevor Rachkowski, SAH Resources Committee chair in an address to the hospital’s board of directors at its most recent meeting.

“Based on January results, SAH is anticipating an overall deficit of approximately $14 million,” wrote Brandy Sharp Young, SAH spokesperson in an email received earlier this week.

However, Silvano said government aid, when it comes, means it’s not too late to apply that money to the budget for SAH’s current fiscal year, which ends March 31.

“We had a call with the Ministry and the Ontario Health Association right after the announcement, and they’ve said right from the beginning that their primary goal is for hospitals to continue operating and they’re ensuring hospitals have the cash flows in order for them to do so effectively. March is usually a month where we receive a lot of information from the Ministry in terms of funding, so I would say no, it would not be unlikely for us to be able to balance and that would be them supporting and reimbursing hospitals for lost revenue,” Silvano said.

“No (specific) amounts have been promised (yet) but it would significantly reduce our deficit...it would definitely help our financial position this fiscal year and I think the announcement the government just put out for the budget would help us going into next fiscal."

The province also announced $300 million will go to Ontario hospitals to cut down the backlog of surgical procedures that have been cancelled or delayed due to the pandemic. 

Silvano estimated “probably around 600 procedures” were put on hold at SAH as a result of last year’s initial COVID onslaught.

“We have been able to catch up, I would say, on those procedures. What the unknown is, is all those ones that still need to be diagnosed or scheduled because of the period where everything was shut down.”

Types of procedures which were backlogged at SAH included those involving ophthalmology, orthopaedics, general surgery and ears, nose and throat operations, Silvano said.

Serious, life-threatening procedures were not put on hold.         

It is not yet known how much funding SAH will receive in terms of addressing the backlog of surgical procedures that have been cancelled or delayed due to the pandemic.

“It’s been a stressful time for all...everyone needs it (extra government funding for hospitals). We’re grateful to see the investment in hospitals and definitely there’s a need across Ontario,” Silvano said.