North Bay Regional Hospital has received a funding injection of six million dollars to help ease the downsizing process the healthcare center is going through. That means the money will not go to patient care or any new equipment at the hospital, but will instead minimizing the effects of the decision to downsize.
Paul Heinrich, the hospital’s president and chief executive officer, told BayToday that it’s a “one time support to minimize the impact of our significant rightsizing initiative”.
“In the summertime we announced a reduction of 158 full-time equivalent staff and starting to get into that change there are some one-time impacts, for example, early retirement offers. We’re very pleased to learn we are receiving that money and that it really takes some of the pressure off of our financial situation for this fiscal year.”
“It’s one time to support some of the cost reductions so primarily it’s going to be for severance and early retirement offers.”
Last September it was announced that 158 jobs and 30 beds would be cut from the North Bay Regional Hospital, causing huge controversy. The hospital was sitting on a $14 million deficit after being underfunded for several years, so cutting jobs and beds became a way to cut costs and save money. Heinrich has been criticized through the process and the cost cutting measures have put a cloud over the hospital.
The new $6 million funding may be used to help infrastructure and the downsizing of spaces, says Heinrich:
“We will be continuing to face significant cost pressures, for example the cost of long-term disability benefits and the impacts of wage increases that are provincially negotiated, things that are often decided by arbitrators and things we don’t have a lot of control over. We continue to see pressures financially and we’ll continue to keep the lines open with the ministry and help them understand where we’re at with our targets and improvement initiatives”
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