Status of Women committee  I'm talking provincial. Technically—

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Well, it's well known that Ontario has not increased funding for hospitals over the past several years and probably won't for another couple of years. That sounds like it's not a budget cut, but it is, because health care costs go up by 3% to 6% a year. That means there are going to be cuts of 3% to 6%.

Status of Women committee  Yes.

Status of Women committee  Dr. Votta-Bleeker, perhaps you could speak to that.

Status of Women committee  We're a tertiary care centre, so our referrals come from family physicians. By the time the patients get to us, they are already moderately ill in terms of severity. Our program does have an outpatient component to it. We get about 150 to 200 new referrals a year of adults. We triage the referrals in terms of what level of care they require: either in-patient and day hospital or outpatient.

Status of Women committee  I don't have the particular numbers, but I know of research that has looked at cultures before Internet and TV was introduced and after Internet and TV was introduced, and the incidence of obesity and eating disorders shot up after the introduction of the media.

Status of Women committee  I think it's funded by the Ministry of Health.

Status of Women committee  There's not a whole lot of funding to do research on eating disorders in Canada, period. So it's very difficult if you're a young researcher in an academic setting, trying to start a career, to do research in eating disorders. I'm not sure that I'd even recommend it because it's just too difficult.

Status of Women committee  So it's unique, but the good thing about it is that the people doing the research are the ones who are most closely connected to the treatment programs.

Status of Women committee  There's actually a very active group in Canada of eating disorders researchers. The interesting thing about the group is that they're a lot like me, clinicians who are doing research within tertiary care centres. There's a group in Ottawa, our group. There's the group at CHEO. There are SickKids, Toronto General, the Douglas, and St.

Status of Women committee  Yes. I don't know if that's as true in the U.S or if that is unique to Canada. Do you know?

Status of Women committee  About 30%, yes.

Status of Women committee  We don't have the resources.

Status of Women committee  I work at the tertiary care centre in the Ottawa Hospital's eating disorders program. I've been there for 17 years. We've seen cuts over that time. We lost an OT a couple of years ago, an advanced-practice nurse, half of a psychologist position. It's like death by a thousand cuts, constantly being shaved back a little bit at a time with each new budget.