Bluewater Health is very pleased with the Ontario government's funding allotment this year.
Sarnia-Lambton MPP Bob Bailey announced $4.5 million in additional annual funding, an increase of 3.2 per cent to meet current and future demand for regular services.
A total of $2.1 million is annualized funding for 2019/2020 plus $2.4 million for 2020/2021.
Bluewater Health President and CEO Mike Lapaine said the funding is more than they would typically receive.
"We always get an annual funding increase of some amount, it usually is not sufficient enough to deal with our inflationary pressures, however this year it did deal with our inflationary pressures," said Lapaine. "This particular year we're really gratified and it couldn't have come at a better time because we're going to have a lot of extraordinary or unplanned expenses this year."
Lapaine said Bluewater Health spends about $180 million a year and the new funding for the current fiscal year that began April 1 allows them to balance the budget.
Wednesday's funding announcement does not include COVID-19 related funding.
Hospitals are tracking and reporting pandemic expenses separately.
Lapaine said Bluewater Health has had a lot of unusual expenses in the last two months but also some savings have been realized with the hospital operating below capacity.
"If some of that [additional expense] gets covered by COVID [funding] then absolutely it would be perceived that we have had savings and the idea would be we'd use those savings to deal with the backlog [of procedures]. We recognize many, many patients in this community have been inconvenienced," he said.
-With files from Josh Boyce and Melanie Irwin
