PETER CONRADI and JOHN ROBBINS/Bullet News
NIAGARA – Job cuts are coming to the Niagara Health System as its managers struggle to find $13 million in savings to balance the books.
Sue Matthews
Details of the new fiscal measures were laid out during a lunchtime media briefing in St. Catharines.
“As every hospital in the province is doing, the Niagara Health System has been reviewing where and how we can gain efficiencies and improve our bottom line,” said NHS interim president and CEO Sue Matthews. “We have to be financially sustainable. It is not an option for us. We have a zero-per cent funding increase for hospitals, despite inflation and that means a negative impact for us.
“In response, we have identified some savings up to about $13 million.”
Matthews said the NHS is still regarded as one of the most efficient hospital authorities in the province, making it very challenging to find further savings.
The NHS at one time had one of the largest annual deficits of any hospital in the province. In 2008, the Liberal government ordered the NHS to develop a “hospital improvement plan” to address its financial problems and to address quality of care issues.
The Liberals also addressed a historic shortfall in funding by increasing the NHS’s annual operating grant.
The target set at that time the HIP was adopted in December 2008 was to have the books balanced by 2013.
The current fiscal year ends March 31. The operational budget of the NHS is $430 million. The budget is expected to jump to $500 million a year after the new St. Catharines health-care complex, opening at the end of March, is fully operational.
Matthews said steps will be taken to protect quality of care while dealing with the financial situation of the organization.
“Patient care remains our priority,” Matthews told reporters.”Patient care will not be sacrificed in any way.”
Among the steps the NHS expects to take to get its operational deficit under control are increasing parking fees, not filling 12-full-time equivalent positions, reducing overtime, closing operating rooms for up to six weeks at three sites, decentralizing the nursing scheduling office (supervisors will now make schedules), product standardization, reducing part-time hours, and even using less paper.
Matthews said there are approximately 120 vacancies, half of them full time. She said there are 66 nursing vacancies, 31 of them full time.
No nurses are expected to be laid off. The number of cleaning staff at hospitals, which have been hard hit by superbug outbreaks in recent years, will also remain unchanged. No bed closures are anticipated.
The new satellite dialysis centre now under construction inside the Hatch office building in Niagara Falls will move forward as planned, Matthews said, adding there are no new plans for consolidation of services.
“The last thing we consider are program changes,” Matthews said. “We will always look and consider what is possible, but the No. 1 priority has to be for patient care . . . There is nothing on a list, there is nothing in a drawer waiting, but six months from now there might be.”
The NHS isn’t sure how many layoffs will take place. It has already eliminated 12 administrative and executive positions. It hopes to reach further job reduction targets by voluntary retirement or buyouts.
“We don’t know the final number of individuals who will leave the organization in this process,” she said. “This is a very lengthy process, and in the past it takes up to a year sometimes for the process to land. I do know it’s a stressful time for staff… we feel very much for them affected by this and will do everything we can to minimize the impact.”
Matthews said staff has been asked to take part in a ‘Bright Ideas’ campaign in hopes of finding an additional $3 million in savings.
And even when they find the cuts, Matthews said the NHS will face similar challenges every year.
“This is ongoing. Every year, sometimes twice or three times a year,” she said. “In light of current economic conditions we will face challenges for the next three to five fiscal years.”
NEW PARKING FEE STRUCTURE AT NHS SITES
$2.00 per 30 minutes
$4.00 per hour
$8.00 maximum per 12 hours
$40.00 per week
$80.00 per month
$22.00 biweekly for staff
(This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.)
One Comment on "SECOND UPDATE: Job cuts coming to Niagara Health System as hospital deals with $13-million deficit"
Although the LIberals added $ 14 million to the operational budget in 2010-2011, it was still $ 4 million short . The NHS was underfunded by over $ 17 million. The NHS closed beds, cut staff and reduced services in all 5 hospitals in an attempt to balance its books.
The LIberals’ austerity budget offered a zero increase in funding to hospitals – forcing all of them to review their operations and make those cuts necessary to keep within their budget. Most hospitals are under a greater stress because now a certain percentage of their funding is linked directly to the services that they provide. Some hospitals will receive less money because of the reduction in services.
Keeping mental health services and birthing programs in the NIagara Falls and Welland is financially very important to those hospitals as it will keep the funding levels close to the 2012 levels. Losing those services means that in the future, the NHS would be able to financially justify closing 3 hospitals in the southern tier.
The new St. Catharines hospital is an additional financial burden- partly because is it is P3 – meaning that it was built, financed and is being managed by a corporation and partly because it is now for all intents and purposes a regional hospital.
The deficit of $ 13 million also means that the above hospital will not open its doors with all of its 375 beds . This is a great diservice to the citizens of Thorold , Niagara-on -the -Lake and St. Catharines because in return for the promise of a 375 bed community hospital- they gave huge financial donations to build the hospital and the infrastructure to go with it.
Ontario’s per capita funding for health care for the past number of years is the second lowest of all the provinces. Hospital funding has steadily decreased.
It is time for the government to realize that Ontario like the United States has a huge revenue problem. Cutting corporation taxes has not resulted in economic growth, increased job opportunities and the subsequent increased tax revenue. It is a lose- lose situation. We need to increase revenues in order to support health care, education, and social services. Raising corporation taxes, closing the loopholes in the EHT and stopping the privatization of our health care system will generate the monies needed.
Hopefully the future Premier will embark on a new direction and better fund our health care system.