CancerCare cuts travel budget

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This article was published 09/10/2017 (2977 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

CancerCare Manitoba is cutting back on inter-provincial staff travel and limiting its involvement with professional associations in a bid to meet its provincial savings target.

The agency learned it would need to find $2.5 million in annual savings just a week after the Manitoba government axed plans for a $300-million CancerCare Manitoba building due to the province’s financial situation.

“As you are aware, the provincial health care system is anticipating significant financial pressures,” reads the Feb. 17 letter from Manitoba’s deputy health minister to Dr. Sri Navaratnam, president of CancerCare Manitoba.

The letter is not unlike those received by senior officials at the province’s five health authorities, whose attempts to meet the Manitoba mandate are — in many instances — still under review, even with the fiscal year halfway completed.

To meet the target at CancerCare, a spokeswoman said the agency will be relying more on MBTelehealth and stepping back from professional associations and networks that charge fees for membership. She says CancerCare will also save by no longer filling vacant staff positions.

Those cost-cutting initiatives, which have been approved by the provincial government, will save the agency $1.5 million. CancerCare is in the process of implementingl the measures. The remaining $1 million comes from a 15 per cent reduction in senior management, as required of all Crown corporations and health regions this year. At CancerCare that amounts to seven jobs.

Although there has been passing mention over the last few months that the cancer agency would need to find some savings, the majority of the attention has focused on ongoing clinical cuts at the regional health authority level.

Indeed, the news that CancerCare was being asked to reduce annual expenses beyond senior management salaries came as a surprise to the NDP’s new health critic, Andrew Swan.

“CancerCare is a great organization, respected I think by everybody, and a vital resource for families and patients,” said Swan, who first learned about the $2.5 million after the NDP filed a freedom of information request to get a copy of savings target letters send to various health authorities.

“The idea that its being targeted in the same ways as other organizations is disappointing to people who know they provide great care.”

It’s an indication, Swan went on, that “this premier is bound and determined to look at the bottom line and not worry about patient care.”

A spokeswoman for health minister Kelvin Goertzen didn’t address patient care issues in a statement, but indicated the request is in keeping with the provincial government’s attempts to wrangle the deficit.

All health regions and agencies, she said, have been asked, “to find efficiencies within their operations where possible.” She noted that despite being asked to find annual savings, CancerCare Manitoba actually received a budget increase of nearly $5 million this year.

 

jane.gerster@freepress.mb.ca