Tourism downturn affects Banff hospital

December 15, 2001
Source: CBC Calgary
Original story - link verified on December 15, 2001

The Mineral Springs Hospital in Banff has just finished building a second operating room but it can't afford to open it because of a lack of tourists. In the weeks after the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, the travel industry slowed to a crawl and there weren't many tourists in Banff. Sheilah Sommer, the hospital's chief executive officer, says losing foreign patients who pay cash hurts their bottom line. "Banff is probably pretty actually unique across Canada," says Sommer. "I would doubt there's another hospital that has a ratio that depends so heavily on chargeable patients. About 50 per cent of our funding comes from chargeable patients and they account for about 30 per cent of our volume." Sommer says between provincial budget cuts and the drop in foreign patients, the hospital's revenues are down by almost a quarter of a million dollars. Sommer says if the tourist traffic recovers, the new operating room may open by next summer.

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