The two major medical problems behind this increased demand are cardiovascular disease and cancer. Despite important advances in medical therapy, most patients who suffer a heart attack or stroke will require at least one hospital admission and many will require several during their lifetime. The initial treatment to try to eradicate a newly diagnosed tumour will often require inpatient surgery. Outpatient or same-day surgery is simply not a realistic option for most patients. To date, baby-boomers have not strained our hospitals' capabilities as cardiovascular disease rarely starts before age 50 in men and 60 in women.
Strokes occur even later in life.
All the major cancers are associated with aging and tend to occur primarily after the fifth or sixth decade of life. There is no question that our five existing hospital facilities are becoming increasingly antiquated. However outdated, these facilities do share one major virtue - excess capacity. As hospital budgets and the supply of nurses have been shrinking, we have closed inpatient beds to deal with these shortages. At the five teaching hospitals slated for closure, whole wards have been closed and now function as space for research, administration or other activities.