Sunrise Health Region announced last week that it will decrease spending by $2.86 million to balance their budget. No facilities will be closed, however, staff changes will reduce spending on salaries.
"We're looking at all of our services and certainly wanted to protect the core services we provide," said Senior Vice President of Health Services, Suann Laurent. "Administration costs is one we always look at."
The health region is cutting administration costs by $653,000 this year. The cut will affect many positions, including retirement, reassignment and realignment. Some positions will be eliminated.
One position to be eliminated was that of the Yorkton Regional Health Centre Chaplain.
"It was a position that we unfortunately needed to look at," said Laurent. "What we're going to do is work closely with our affiliates who have some pastoral support-in Melville and Esterhazy-as well as accessing pastoral care support in the community."
While pastoral care was not an administration cutback, Laurent said it was a difficult decision to make. "We're going to work together with all of [our affiliates] because pastoral care is part of holistic care."
Saving money by means of group purchasing has been a standard practice of Sunrise for years. But the majority of expenses-77 per cent-is for salaries and benefits.
Last year, $8.5 million was spent on sick leave and overtime alone, said Laurent.
"We're going to be working aggressively with our employees and unions to reduce sick time and injuries."
One strategy to keep workers productive is a "back to work program."
"There are some people that are off sick and may not be able to do their job, but may be able to components of that job or another job," explained Laurent. However, she said there are many factors affecting sick leave, which is why the region will be investigating and analyzing what is happening with their staff regarding sick leave.
"If we had 8.5 million, we certainly could do a lot of great things in our region and wouldn't have to look at some of the reductions we're looking at."
The good news is Sunrise plans to come out of the next fiscal year on budget.
"It's a very challenging budget," said Laurent. "That said, we have been able to avoid facility closure and these are tough decisions that affect people on our staff. They're hard decisions for all of us.
