More health-care administration cuts coming, minister warns
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/11/2017 (2885 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
Get used to seeing administration cuts throughout the health-care system, Health Minister Kelvin Goertzen warned Friday.
Under intense attack from the NDP, Goertzen said the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority has only ordered a 0.25 per cent cut in mid-year budget spending for personal health-care homes, with every penny coming from administration.
But it won’t stop there, Goertzen later told reporters.
“We need to look for reductions in administration. We’ve been talking about reducing administration ever since we came into office,” the health minister said.
There will be no impact on residents’ care, which received a $548,000 funding increase this year, Goertzen declared.
NDP leader Wab Kinew said the cut the WRHA has ordered personal care homes to implement amounts to about $1 million, but Goertzen didn’t have a total figure Friday.
“In some cases it’s $5,000, in some it’s $15,000. It’s one less administrative position for the rest of the year,” he said, noting the cuts will come through vacancy management.
“Where are you going to get the best bang for your buck?”
His staff later suggested the money could also be found in supplies and services at the administration level.
Figures published Friday listed the lowest figure at $9,610 in cuts at the Pembina Place Mennonite Personal Care Home to a high of more than $82,000 at River Road Place.
Goertzen said the administrative budget cuts are separate from the 15 per cent management cuts Premier Brian Pallister has ordered throughout the civil service, health care system and Crown corporations.
Kinew rejected Goertzen’s claim that administration can be reduced without affecting the care of residents.
“The minister of health is just muddying the waters to try to hide Pallister’s cuts,” Kinew said. “For each facility, you’re talking tens of thousands of dollars less.
“We know Manitobans need some 6,300 (additional) personal care home beds.”
In question period, Kinew named personal care homes in the ridings of several Tory backbenchers that are having their funding cut.
“Like all government cuts, it’s about the money, not patient care,” Kinew said.
Goertzen told Kinew the money is to come from administration, and when the NDP leader continued to accuse Goertzen of hurting residents, the health minister scoffed that Kinew was so determined to pose the questions his staff had prepared prior to question period, he was ignoring the fact he received a direct answer.
“The MLAs he named are standing up for patients, he’s standing up for administration,” bellowed Goertzen.
nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca