Outgoing Sudbury Regional Hospital CEO Vickie Kaminski said she is hopeful patients are “going to be able to count on better care than they sometimes have had” despite budget cuts to reduce a nearly $12 million deficit at the hospital.
Kaminski made the remarks to the media during a scrum after the public portion of a hospital board of directors meeting June 9. The board had met in camera earlier in the evening to hammer out details of the budget cuts, which will be announced at a press conference at 4:30 p.m. today.
Although she would not elaborate on how cuts could be made and patient care still improved, she did say the changes would "hopefully mitigate" ongoing surgical cancellations at the hospital.
She would not say from what areas from which jobs would be cut, or how many jobs would be eliminated. Kaminski also refused to talk about how much of the deficit would eliminated with the cuts, although she did say reducing the deficit would be an "evolutionary process."
"We've tried to maintain patient services and not have a significant effect. I think part of it is looking at how patients access the organization and the kinds of services we provide. There will be lots of detail tomorrow."
June 10 is also Kaminski's last day on the job as the CEO of Sudbury Regional Hospital. She is leaving the hospital to become the CEO of Eastern Health in St. John's, Newfoundland.
She said the timing of her departure has nothing to do with when the cuts are being announced, but is merely a coincidence.
"It was just a question of timing and being able to get people together. We do have to respect our staff and take it to them first, and there wasn't an opportunity for us to be able to do that, given the schedule of meetings we had with the finance committee of the board, and then with the board meeting tonight."
Kaminski said the budget is tough but achievable. While there's no growth in patient services, the hospital isn't looking at eliminating any one service, she said.
"We are going to see some changes. Part of it too, when you see it tomorrow, is related to the future of the organization and what we're going to look like in a year."
The problem is that costs at the hospital have risen by more than three per cent, and the government only gave the organization a 1.7 per cent increase in funding this year, she said.
"If the government was sitting on piles of money, I'd want to see it flow to us. It's a tough economic time, and I think that there's tough choices to be made. I'm grateful that they didn't take money out of the budget."
The cuts are being made after consultations with staff, department heads and manager, said Kaminski.
Those whose jobs are being affected will be "spoken to" before the cuts are made public, she said.
Kaminski said she felt "rather melancholy" presiding over her last hospital board meeting, but felt confident with leaving the institution in the hands of Bertha Paulse, who has been chosen as the interim CEO.
Paulse had been the vice-president of the Regional Cancer Program since 2005. An executive search firm has been hired to assist with the recruitment of a new hospital CEO.
"I would love to stay...But the opportunities that have been afforded me don't wait," said Kaminski. "So you have to know when to hold them and when to fold them."
Check back to NorthernLife.ca for coverage of the press conference about the cuts.
