Despite its efficient operations, the Collingwood General & Marine Hospital has run a deficit in 13 of the past 14 years, Blue Mountains council were told this week.

"Collingwood General & Marine Hospital is already a low-cost provider of medical services," hospital president Linda Davis said Monday night as part of her annual state-of-the-hospital report to council.

"Our cost per case is 11% lower than the average in hospitals across our LHIN . . . Collingwood G&M Hospital's overhead costs are about 8.4%. The average overhead cost across our LHIN is 10%."

The hospital's deficits have seldom been more than 2% of the budget and in 2011 was 0.5%, Davis said.

However, the hospital cannot continue running in the red and provide the level of service it now offers.

The hospital received $500,000 last year from the North Simcoe-Muskoka LHIN but "this money was a one-time payment," Davis said.

With a freeze on increases to hospital funding this year, the General & Marine must increase its fundraising efforts.

"To tackle the 2% deficit forecast for this year, our board has already launched a fundraising campaign," Davis told council.

Shelly Wells, the chair of the hospital's board of trustees, told councillors the hospital wants "to take a leadership role in the Local Health Integration Network . . . as an expert in orthopaedics," which would involve enhancing the orthopedic services it now provides.

Staff are highly experienced in this branch of medicine from years of treating bone fractures for skiers and arthritic joints for seniors, she said.