Posted on 08/11/2009 3:10:47 PM PDT by Lorianne
The health authority is scrambling to avoid a budget shortfall of $45 million - about 3.1 per cent of its budget. ___ The Vancouver Island Health Authority will cut jobs, sell land, increase fees and cap the number of elective surgeries as it grapples with a funding shortfall.
The cuts are outlined in a VIHA letter to staff and doctors yesterday. Similar letters were sent by the province's five other health authorities after their recent submission of budgets and financial statements to the provincial government.
VIHA runs hospitals and care centres on the Island. Despite $95 million in new provincial money this year, it is scrambling to avoid a shortfall of $45 million -- about 3.1 per cent of its budget. "One of the things we will attempt to do is not increase our wait times," said VIHA board chairman Jack Kreut. "We know how important that is to people."
However, VIHA is proposing to cut the rising number of non-emergency surgeries, called elective surgeries, to stay within last year's levels. That means people looking for such things as hernia and gallbladder surgery might face longer waits.
VIHA is also proposing to curb staff overtime, raise parking fees, and freeze spending for gardening and non-essential maintenance. Surplus land, such as property near Victoria General Hospital in View Royal, could be up for sale.
"These reductions will involve job losses, and are extremely difficult and unsettling for staff across our organization, but are necessary to ensure that every available dollar is put towards caring for patients," VIHA CEO Howard Waldner wrote to staff in yesterday's memo.
VIHA is one of the largest employers on the Island, with 17,000 employees. The number of lost jobs is unknown.
Waldner said it's possible some health-care facilities could be converted to urgent care centres, which handle cases like an emergency room but don't allow overnight stays. As well, Waldner's letter discussed transferring some acute-care beds to community services outside a hospital, and consolidating residential-care beds to supportive housing and group care.
VIHA had already announced cuts to travel and administrative services.
The B.C. government has budgeted $15.7 billion for health care this year, of which $8.9 billion goes directly to health authorities. Health Minister Kevin Falcon said health authority money transfers will increase 20 per cent over three years. The total health budget increases to $17.5 billion by 2011-12.
However, the province's six health authorities say that leaves shortfalls this year of around 3.5 per cent of their health budgets, or $360 million provincewide.
Normally, the provincial government steps up with extra cash. But the economic slump has pushed the province into a growing deficit. "We are in a situation right now where there is no more money, there is no question about it," Falcon said yesterday.
Falcon said he expects to create a financial penalty for CEOs and board chairmen unable to meet financial restrictions.
The shortfalls were hinted at in budget footnotes and draft service plans as far back as February. NDP health critic Adrian Dix said health authorities deliberately withheld final service plans until after the May 12 election so as not to embarrass the government and Premier Gordon Campbell.
"They knew it was coming before the election and they hid," said Dix. "There's a price to be paid. And unfortunately, that price won't be paid by Mr. Campbell and Mr. Falcon or others politically. It's going to be paid by people waiting for health care on Vancouver Island."
ain’t govcare grand?
lol
as efficient as the Post Office!
This is impossible.
Obama tells us so.
I think Zer0 said that the Canadian H/C system wouldn’t work in the US.
It wont and never will. Born and raised in BC and have witnessed the idiocy of the system. In summary: every BC resident has to pay their premiums every month or the govt will ding your credit report. 2nd: the taxpayer money goes to the unions (doctors, nurses, admin) and NOT into the system. The VHA only accomodates the island populace and is considered “unworthy”. It’s a nice place to raise a family though.
What is the tax rate there?
Thanks for the first hand report.
provincial sales tax is 7.5% while the GST (the tax BC residents stupidly and happily hand over to the Feds as mafia payment for Quebec’s yearly threat to secede) is 7.5%.
BUT if you are a resident who pays taxes, you get 4 payments of $80 per year PLUS the ‘CLIMATE CHANGE” check (NO, I AM NOT KIDDING, that’s what it says on the check) which is around $25 from the BC/Fed govt.
If you can’t help bashing your birth country you should at least get your numbers straight.
Provincial sales tax is 7%, GST is 5% and has been so for a while.
GST refund checks (I presume this is what you refer to) are not paid to residents per se.
I have no idea what your “$25 climate change” check is supposed to be. Last year, the BC Government paid out $100 pp as a refund for the so-called carbon tax on fuel, so that residents are reimbursed for the tax we all (i.e. including visitors) pay on gas.
Your comments on VIHA are equally idiotic, but I won’t comment on that because obviously you can’t keep even the most basic numbers straight, so what’s the point.
> Your comments on VIHA are equally idiotic, but I won’t comment on that because obviously you can’t keep even the most basic numbers straight, so what’s the point.<
The point is you are still living there, breathing in the stupidity of the country and very well shown everyone here the example of the infamous “canadian inferiority complex”..or is it you dont want to let our American friends know the dirty little secret of how inferior, broken and screwed up the system really is..especially from the point of view of one who grew up in Saskatchewan and BC?
Now F**k off.
It’s always telling when someone has to revert to foul language in order to hide the point that they have been caught with their pants down spewing out untrue “facts”.
If you need to nurture your small ego by making false friends, you should at least do so by sticking with the truth.
As a sidebar, you may be surprised to hear that I still carry an American passport but live up here (at the moment) because of work commitments. However, I tend to conduct a lot of research into my respective places of residence, something you seem to be incapable of.
Yes, sure..now go away please. For someone who likes to bring up the subject of ego, you sure seem to have a fragile one yourself. And no, I am not surprised (nor care) about your sidebar regarding the possession of an American passport while in canada. Would you like a prize for this extraordinary feat?
If that’s what you “claim” to be, buddy sure (wink). Next time you post, you’re an Australian living in the Alberta and you’ll probably slag me for ridiculing canada LOL
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