The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is waiting to find out what their share is of Thursday's hospital funding announcement.
Premier Kathleen Wynne announced $822-million in 2018-2019 to provide better access to care, reduce wait times, address capacity issues and better meet the needs of Ontario's growing and aging population.
CKHA CEO Lori Marshall says she's waiting for details in the provincial budget next week and a breakdown but expects to get some money to shorten knee surgery wait times.
"We have longer than average wait times for knee surgery and we have some longer wait times with respect to some diagnostics procedures and I'm hopeful that we might see some relief in those particular areas," says Marshall.
The provincial budget will be presented on Wednesday.
Marshall applauds the hospital funding because it has been frozen for several years up until last year.
"This is a tremendous announcement that would be celebrated by the hospital sector across the province because there have been a number of years prior to last year where funding was frozen for hospitals," she says.
Marshall says the hospital funding will likely be tied to performance and growth and not inflation.
"The majority of funding announcements now that come from the ministry are usually tied to some expectations and accountability. Funding would be targeted and identified for a certain area versus being provided to the hospital and [used] at our discretion," Marshall says.