QUEEN'S PARK – The price of implementing the new Ebola protocols at Ontario's 155 hospitals may likely run into hundreds of thousands of dollars, warns Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound MPP Bill Walker. For this reason, the MPP sought assurance from the Health Minister during today's Question period that the Ministry would fully reimburse the health care community for any costs associated with the new Ebola protocols.

"These new Ebola directives will come with costs that need to be absorbed by the existing capped funding folders," Walker said. "With the Liberal government's spiraling deficit and a healthcare budget that is already strapped to the max, I worry how the government will pay for Ebola emergency management in Ontario, without impacting existing services."

Minister Hoskins said he has tasked the health care community with tracking all these costs, and added that and they would be reimbursed at a "later date."

Walker said it's anyone's guess when that "later day" will happen.

"Local hospital corporations are already running on hair-thin budgets and administrators are asking how they will be able to balance their budgets," he said. "It worries me that it could be another situation like the Ontario Hydro Debt Retirement fiasco. When will the reimbursement be paid to our local hospital corporations?"

Walker said local hospitals are in the process of ordering equipment and supplies and carrying out mandatory training.

"But without money to pay for these added costs, the new protocols may be for naught," he said.

Walker said health administrators need more information and better guidance from the health minister.

"Hospitals did not receive confirmation before today's question period that the Ministry would be reimbursing them for the cost of responding to the potential Ebola virus, which could translate into hundreds of thousands of dollars in labour costs, training drills and supplies, such as protective equipment, depending on how long this goes on," Walker said. "But I will hold the Minister to his word."
Souece: Bill Walker MPP (Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound)