At its May 30 meeting, the Sunrise Regional Health Authority passed a narrowly balanced budget that will require stretching existing healthcare dollars further than ever.
The $208.7 million 2012-13 operating budget, passed by a board that included three brand-new members, has zero contingency, leaving no breathing room for cost overruns or unplanned events. Circumstances such as higher-than-anticipated acute care demands or an illness outbreak could easily send the health region into the red, admitted the administration.
Additionally, meeting the budget will require sacrifices from Sunrise staff as well as increased fees for patients.
The cause of this year's tight spending goes back to the March provincial budget, which provided only a 2.4 percent net increase in funding for the region: not enough to keep pace with cost increases and inflation. Eighty-nine percent of Sunrise's total operating revenue comes from the province.
As a result, the region had to find ways to cut expenses and increase revenue.
Cuts
Included on the chopping block are non-salary expenditures for employees.
"It's going to be very, very tight for staff," Sunrise Vice President of Corporate Services Lorelei Stusek told the board.
Details on those cuts will not be released to the public until the region meets with its unions today (June 6), said Sunrise CEO Suann Laurent.
"We will be having conversations with our unions on wherever we need to-wherever we made some service alignments, but that's part of our process that we need to do first."
The region also needs to save $1 million in the next year by improving employee attendance.
"In our region we are spending 9.6 million dollars, and that encompasses the sick time and the overtime in our region, which is the worst in the province," said Laurent.
Sunrise has had mixed success at addressing this issue in the past, but Laurent is confident that the health region will meet its goals this year thanks to the implementation of new procedures adopted from other regions. "Identifying patterns of suspicious usage" is among the priorities.
The budget proposes to save additional money by putting off filling vacancies in non-essential positions for the next year.
Increases
To bring in extra income, fee increases on TV rentals and private rooms are planned.
The region has also accepted a SaskTel proposal to build a cellular tower atop Yorkton Regional Health Centre.
"Minimal investments"
The new budget, 78 percent of which is allocated to employee compensation, includes "very minimal investments" into new or improved services, said Stusek. These include spending into housekeeping, electronic medical record-keeping, the Kamsack methadone clinic, and Yorkton endo/colonoscopy services.
The Ministry of Health also provided targeted funding for the Saskatchewan Surgical Initiative, enhanced autism services, colorectal screening, and Yorkton's planned Primary Healthcare Innovation Site.
A sharp cut to capital funding-$640,000 in provincial block funding this year compared to $1.5 million last year-means that capital equipment purchases will be limited in the coming year. Between block funding and the region's own capital equipment funding, Sunrise has approximately $1 million to spend this year on capital items, forcing $993,000 worth of purchases labeled "priority one" by department managers to be deferred until more funding is available. This situation is troubling, noted Stusek.
Three balanced budgets
Laurent put a positive spin on the budget.
"I think we're just very excited to have another balanced budget for the third year running. It's been lots of hard work, but certainly the region is moving in the right direction," she said.
The region's 2011-12 audited financial statement, also approved at the meeting, showed that Sunrise ended the last fiscal year with a general operating surplus of $546,000.
The new operating budget has been submitted to the Ministry of Health for review and formal approval.
