Ontario’s government is putting $11 million more than planned into home and community care this year in a bid to lower the number of patients being treated in the hallways of overcrowded hospitals, says Health Minister Christine Elliott.

The money is on top of an increase of $144 million announced in the spring budget, which includes $45 million aimed at “high need” areas where backups are worst, Elliott said Wednesday. The total home care budget for this fiscal year is now $3.1 billion.

Local health-care agencies will use that $45 million to collaborate directly with hospitals on the best ways to free up acute-care beds by providing the services that patients need to leave, whether they go home or to rehab or other facilities if appropriate.

Sunnybrook hospital will get $1.34 million of that to fund teams in the emergency department to ensure patients have the necessary supports to be discharged home or to put supports in place to prevent the need for admissions.

“It’s certainly a new approach,” said Ontario Hospital Association chief executive Anthony Dale, who applauded the move as a way to make the health-care system more flexible.

“We can help move patients out,” added Deborah Simon of the Ontario Community Support Association, representing health care service agencies.

Premier Doug Ford’s government has promised to eliminate hallway health care, which takes place because there are not enough beds in hospitals to move acute-care patients out of emergency departments. The problem steams from thousands of patients in hospitals who are no longer in need of acute care but have nowhere else to go, such as nursing homes, where there are waiting lists.

“To end hallway health care we must build capacity in the system,” Elliott said at the Hillcrest Reactivation Centre near Bathurst St. and Davenport Rd., a part of the University Health Network that helps clients who have been in hospitals and rehab centres get ready to return to their homes.

Hillcrest, for example, is getting $6.4 million to help an additional 580 patients this year.

Elliott said there is long way to go in eliminating hallway health care, measured in part by the number of patients being treated in emergency room and ward hallways daily.

“It goes up and down depending on the time frame. We know it is likely to go up again during flu season,” she told reporters.

“Hospitals, most of them are at 100 per cent-plus capacity and we have the flu season…we are looking very carefully at planning for that.”

The additional cash will allow for 1.8 million more hours of personal support services and another 490,000 nursing visits along with more homemaking and meal services and supports for caregivers.