BY HEIDI ULRICHSEN
The chair of Sudbury Regional Hospital?s board of directors says CEO Vickie Kaminski?s 52 percent raise in 2004 is justified.
The full Ontario Public Sector Salary Disclosure Act, released last week, shows Kaminski received a salary of $342,000 last year, with taxable benefits of $6,000. This was an increase of almost $117,000 from her 2003 salary of $226,000.
Geoffrey Lougheed says the hospital board brought Kaminski?s salary in line with those of other hospital CEOs in Ontario.
The average wage of hospital CEOs last year was $410,000, and the high end was a little over $700,000, he says.
SRH has to pay their executives well to make sure they get the best, says Lougheed.
?When you compare apples to apples, she?s in the range that she belongs in. But it?s when you compare her as a Sudburian that her wage is a high wage,? he says. ?But if we?re talking about doctors, nurses, or any other professional, despite the fact that you live in Sudbury, you should be paid at the same level as others that are equal to you job rating.?
Across the north in 2004, Timmins and District Hospital CEO Esko Vainio was paid $249,000, Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre CEO Ronald Saddington $199,000, and North Bay General Hospital CEO Manu Malkani $138,000.
In the south, London Health Sciences Centre president Tony Dagnone made $441,286, and Toronto University Health Network CEO Thomas Classen $612,500.
When the province conducted a review of SRH?s finances a few years ago, the reviewer suggested they make sure hospital administration was paid enough, says Lougheed.
?He made it clear to us that the salaries of all the administration was below provincial norms, and we should be remedying that. Obviously, a few years ago, we we?re running pretty major deficits, so we weren?t going to change anything at that particular point in time.?
Last year the hospital balanced its budget and the board felt it was time to ?review the things the government has told us we should get in line with.?
Kaminski?s salary was the topic of discussion in Sudbury last week.
In a letter to the editor, doctor and SRH medical advisory committee member Edward Najgebauer calls Kaminski?s raise ?obscene.?
?A raise of this magnitude in today?s economic circumstances is morally repugnant. Ask hospital employees who have had their wages frozen or been given single digit increases for several years or have been given layoff notices what they think of a 52 percent salary increase,? the letter says.
Staff morale at SRH is low, and the one-site hospital is far from completion, Najgebauer said.
He encourages citizens to contact hospital board members and MPP Rick Bartolucci with concerns they may have.
