One time funding from the Ministry of Health has resulted in a $43.2-million surplus for Windsor Regional Hospital.
A report on the fiscal year for 2020-2021 was presented at the hospital's Annual General Meeting Thursday.
Hospital CFO Mark Fathers says the hospital was on track for a $1.3-million surplus for the fiscal year ending March 31 — that's after the ministry stepped up on its promise to cover COVID-19 related expenses that had caused deficits throughout the pandemic.
He says a change to the funding formula caused years of deficits after realignment with Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare back in 2013.
After finally getting back in the black for 2019-2020, Fathers says the ministry addressed years of shortfalls.
"Right before the most recent fiscal year ended we received correspondence from the ministry saying it would provide one-time funding to us of $42.9-million to deal with our working capital deficit," he says. "That resulted in a large surplus of $43.2-million."
Fathers says the money is necessary to ensure the hospital can cover its liabilities moving forward.
"The surplus has helped bring us back to a reasonable balance sheet where we actually have cash reserved to deal with the extraordinary costs that arise just from day to day operations as we take care of our older facilities," he added.
According to the report, the hospital saw 83,468 emergency department visits, down from 104,557 in the 2019-2020 fiscal year.
Day surgeries also dropped to 22,540 from 35,259 last fiscal year.
The hospital went through several periods where non-elective procedures were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic and still faces a backlog.