The Sunrise Health Region has announced its fourth consecutive balanced budget.
The budget consists of revenues totaling $212,818,800, balanced by total operating expenditures of $210,759,397, with the remaining $2,059,403 held for replacement reserves and repayment of mortgages and loans. The region will receive a net provincial funding increase of $3.3 million. Eighty-nine per cent of the health region's total operating revenue is provincially funded, with the remaining coming from long-term care, home care fees, third party charges and other miscellaneous recoveries. In 2012-2013, the region had a general operating surplus of $453,521.
Lawrence Chomos, Sunrise Regional Health Authority Chairperson, says that it's always a priority to present a balanced budget, and this year the region continues to be proud of what it has accomplished.
"From the board's point of view we're very proud that this is the fourth consecutive balanced budget. I've been on the board for quite a while and that has always been a struggle for us to accomplish balanced budgets," he says.
He says that this is in line with the provincial position on health care in the province, which places a priority on finding ways to create a more efficient way of operation in the province's health region. For their part, Sunrise has been working hard to look at ways to make their own operations more efficient, and Chomos says that is reflected in this year's budget.
Some of the money is being targeted towards trying to reduce sick leave, something Chomos admits has been a problem for the region in the past. He emphasizes that the benefits to this are twofold, both in the improved quality of life of employees and patients, but also in the cost savings that result.
"We want people to be at work healthy, and we want them there when they can be, so we've been monitoring that and certainly our employees have done a wonderful job in helping our system turn that around. There's also huge cost savings, so that's one of our local priorities."
The region also received targeted funding to address changes in population as well as put more focus on preventative medicine such as colonoscopies.
"Some of the centres, Yorkton, Esterhazy and others, are seeing substantial growth in population. We know that the demands on the system are always increasing just due to our shifting demographics. We are one of the older regions in the province, with that unfortunately comes more access to the medical system... We need to have that recognized," Chomos says.
"Preventative medicine, like colonoscopy screening, adds additional services to the health region and those cost. We know they're a good investment because dealing with issues like cancer at the preventative level helps."
Chomos says that the issues in the Sunrise Health Region are the same province-wide, with things like reducing wait times being a priority for everyone.
"There has been much discussion about nine or ten health regions thinking as one, and working across the province to look at ways to do things better."
