WHITBY FREE PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MAY 4,1988, PAGE 7 PAGE SEVEN THE DEFICr BLUES Hospitals and universities are crying the deficit blues again. The Minister of Health warned all hospitals last week that the he wouldn't pick up their deficits anymore - not a new position, but one he needs to reiterate periodically to encourage the health care system to go easy on the public purse. Hospitals including Whitby General reacted with cries of user fees, etc. as the only way to make ends meet. But our universities have come up with the most ingenious ploy yet. The Globe and Mail reported last week that the University of Ottawa has sold its library to a private corporation and is leasing it back. Several other universities are considering the same scheme. Hospitals and universities are two of the most expensive areas of provincial administration. Costs were allowed to soar dramatically in the late sixties and early seventies but now the squeeze is on. The theory (which has proved all too true) is that the rapid growth of twenty years ago incorporated a lot of fat that could afford to be trimmed. In spite of all the cries of anguish - of substandard health care and professors and doctors heading south to greener pastures - our hospitals and universities continue to fulfill their role in the community at least as well and probably better than they did a decade ago. To supplement their slashed budgets, universities have sold or licensed some of their more practical research efforts, and, in fact, the funding freeze may well have helped them edge downward slightly from their ivory towers to a greater degree of relevancy. Hospitals, however, are not so lucky. With the exception of user fees (such as paying for your telephone and various disposable items), there is very little that they can do to raise money. One hospital which developed a scheme for providing an elite service for those who were willing to pay was squashed by the province because it appeared to contradict the principle of universal accessibility - that was politically unacceptable. Now, apparently, the superior intellects of our universities have discovered the ultimate way to raise money. They sell their assets to private corporations who then lease them back to the university. Unlike the university which is non-profit, the private corporation can depreciate its new-found asset and generate a fat tax right-off. So the university gets a substantial gob of capital to spend on its whims (the library in question is estimated to be worth $30 million) and private enterprise gets a tax break - everybody wins except the government and we long-suffering taxpayers. The scheme is nothing more than another tax dodge (perhaps scam would be a better word) for those who are wealthy enough to be able to afford the lawyers and accountants that dream up these schemes. If allowed to stand, virtually everything in our hospitals and universities including the buildings themselves will be up for grabs. The scheme bypasses and negates government policy which (whether you agree with it or not) has been to hold the line on spending. Governments know from long experience that high-tech facilities can consume any amount of cash and come begging for more - only by maintaining a very tight lid can costs be controlled. The one flaw in the government policy as I see it, is that they impose their restraint at arms length. They provide virtually 100% of the funding but have only general control over how it is spent. Hospitals and universities are licensed as independent entities administered by community boards responsible only indirectly to the government. The theory is that these people represent the needs of the community in which they live in order to better serve the local population. The trouble is that nobody is really accountable to -anybody. Hospital Boards are by definition made up of amateurs who know little of the intricacies of modern heath care. When asked to choose between a new X-Ray machine, a blood chemistry analyser or new surgical equipment, they simply echo the biases of the hospital's management structure. If we could assume that management was in a position to make the proper decision, then we could assume that the hospital board would too. But one of the reasons that I left the health field was that most hospitals are managed by accountants and professional administrators whose medical and technical competance is zilch. They isolate themselves with further levels of bureaucracy which may or may not hav an more technical comipetance than themnselves. Our hospitals are top heavy on the administrative end at the epnse of health care itself. There is a crying need for new equipment and staff in some areas but the bureaucracy siphons most of it away. So when the provincial governmnent says to tighten the belt a bit more, it has reason to believe that there is still fat to be trimmed. Whether our hospitals and universities can recognize the fat is vital to the quality of health care and higher education. BROOKLIN PUBLIC SCHOOL, C. 1909 This brick school was built in 1880 on a site opposite the Luther Vipond Memorial Arena on Winchester Street. The original bell tower was struck by lightning in 1896 and replaced. The school was condemned as unsafe in 1923 and demolished. Whitby Archives photo 10 YEARS AGO from the Wednesday, May 3, 1978 edition of the WHITBY FREE PRESS • Brooklin residents are dismayed at development delays. The fear they will lose the offer of Consolidated Building Corporation to pay the cost of extending sewers to the village. • Traffic lights will be installed at the Brock/Dunlop and Dundas/Garden-Blair intersections. • A gift shop has opened at the Whitby Psychiatric Hospital. • The South Ontario Agricultural Society has purchased a 66-acre site for fair grounds on Garrard Road, south-east of Brooklin. 25 YEARS AGO from the Thursday, May 2, 1963 edition of the WHITBY WEEKLY NEWS • Rev. Deloss M. Scott is the new minister of the Faith Baptist Church. He comes fron Washington, D.C. • Contracts will be granted next month to reconstruct Thickson Road fromi Highway 2 to Brooklin. • The Bank of Nova Scotia announces it will open a branch on Brock Street North. • A 14-inch safety curb will be installed at the Port Whitby docks where a car backed over the edge and two people drowned. 100 YEARS AGO from the Friday May 4, 1888 edition of the WHITBY CHRONICLE • The Ontario Ladies' College gave a concert last week to raise funds for the Toronto Newsboys' Home. • A sign at the bus stables on Byron Street reads: "No Bumes Aloud Heare." • In Whitby, one can purchase a large two-storey brick building and 19 acres of land for $3,000. A nice cottage with half an acre cost $350. • The boys of the town are spearing suckers by the hundred in the local creeks with the aid of jacklights at night. -~------- pffl &-a. 1 t S..i-