Conroy pipes up over IHA deficit
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Updated: June 30, 2009 2:53 PM
Kootenay West MLA Katrine Conroy is raising concerns about health care in the region. In a press release she states, “Kootenay West is threatened by cuts as the Campbell government misrepresented their post election plans.”
Conroy adds prior to the election, Premier Gordon Campbell and the CEO of the Interior Health Authority Murray Ramsden stated health care in the region would be protected, but after the election, it was learned IHA has a “multi-year, multi-million dollar deficit” which could result in “substantial cuts to health services throughout our region.”
Meanwhile, Ramsden says this process shouldn’t be looked at as “cutting back” but as “keeping up.”
“Keeping up is definitely a problem,” says Ramsden regarding dealing with public needs. He says all clinical areas have also been told to “live with last year’s paid hours” which will be a “challenge for them” as they try to “pull tight and find efficiencies wherever they can to stay within the dollars allocated.”
As far as Ramsden is concerned, the health care business changes from year to year, and he admits the Kootenays is a “challenging area” because, as he says, a lot of people in the area have not appreciated some of the changes IHA has made “over the last while.” He’s insistent that sustainability and quality service will still be the main focus, though he does say balancing the books, while maintaining quality service, will be the top priorities for IHA this fiscal year.
“It is a challenging budget,” he says. “We put in measures to try and keep costs down, such as freezing positions, reducing travel and discretionary expenditures. All those types of initiatives we’ve been bringing in for the last two and a half months.”
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