The Prairie North Health Region announced in a recent press release that it has approved a balanced budget.
The health region will be spending a total of over $260 million in 2012-13, representing a 6.98 per cent increase over last year's numbers. The proportion provided by the province is increasing by 4.2 per cent.
The release also notes that nearly 80 per cent of the budget is for employees and physicians.
Receiving the largest portion of funding is acute care, which represents 37 per cent of the year's expenditures. Supportive care, residential and community mental health and addictions services and support services receive 16.5, 15 and 10 per cent, respectively. The remainder of the funding goes to primary care (five per cent), integrated facilities and health centres (five per cent), population health services (four per cent) home care (four per cent), emergency response (2.5 per cent) and intersectoral initiatives (one per cent).
Additionally, more than $5 million will be invested in new capital equipment, nearly $4.2 million will go to capital maintenance and upgrades and IT investment will total $1.2 million.
David Fan, the PNHR CEO, spoke approvingly of the new budget.
"As a region, we are focused on maximizing every dollar spent in order to improve the patient experience. By aligning our work with the provincial priorities, we're able to make significant progress in many areas, including reducing surgical wait times for our residents and people across Saskatchewan.
"We're also committed to the ongoing process of finding efficiencies and eliminating waste through the implementation of the Saskatchewan Lean Management System."
