By Angela Hill

Health Region receives increase from budget

Mar 23, 2011 | 8:02 PM

The Prince Albert Parkland Health Region is pleased they received increased funding through the provincial budget.

“We’re pretty pleased with funding we have received based on work our staff is doing,” said Cecile Hunt, health region CEO.

The $12.5 million increase over last year, takes the base operating funds to $178.5 million and will help with pressure points especially in acute care, Hunt said.

A majority of the increase will go to collective agreements settled last year. Most of the annual operating budget is directed towards staffing funds.

The health region’s 7.6 per cent increase is lower than the average increase of nine per cent.

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Whether or not the region will need to make cuts or changes to programing, like last year, won’t be known until deeper analysis can be done on the budget, Hunt said.

“Until we have some further time to do analysis of the detail I think our message is, we have received an increase, it’s addressed some of our pressure points, it will allow our patient to access surgery in some of the identified timelines and we continue to build,” she said.

“We assume that successes (with cutting down overtime and sick time) will continue and we’ve been given additional targets in that area. If we can save dollars there, that actually can be plowed back into our programs and our service delivery.”

The Ministry of Health has noticed how much money the region saved through their previous initiatives.

“I think the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region has done a very good job,” said Don McMorris, health minister.

The Ministry will continue to encourage the regions with their wage driven premiums, sick time, shared services and creating efficiencies to try saving an additional $25 million across the province.

While there was no infrastructure announcement for Victoria Hospital redevelopment, health region officials remain optimistic, said Hunt.

“There are no new dollars today, however those may flow out in weeks and months to come,” she said.

The current planning funds are set to last until June.

The Ministry of Health is aware of the pressure on the current hospital, said McMorris.

“We know the pressures that the Victoria Hospital is under, (with) the increased utilization and the increased flow from the north,” he said.

“We know it’s an area of growth and (we) need to make sure that our facilities are able to keep up.”
He said as money is available the ministry will continue to support the initiative.

ahill@panow.com

Sidebar: Specialist Funding

The budget announced $2.8 million in specialist services to be split between Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

Prince Albert Parkland Health Region’s share is part of the base funding and is continues support for an orthopedic surgeon and pediatrician that joined the health region last year.

“We are very pleased to see this funding added to our base,” Hunt said.

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