Positions announced early this year to be cut at the Scarborough Centenary Hospital are expected to be saved as a result of this year’s Ontario budget proposal.
A 1.5 per cent funding increase means the hospital will not be following through with the 14 layoffs announced in February, said David Brazeau, Rouge Valley Health System’s director of public affairs.
“We’re not looking at any service cuts as a result of the budget,” Brazeau said.
David Brazeau, Rough Valley Health System’s director of public affairs, comments on the 1.5 per cent funding increase in the Ontario budget proposal.
[audio:http://torontoobserver.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Centeneryhospital.mp3]In February, the East Toronto Observer reported that because of a 2008 deficit elimination plan, Scarborough’s cuts would include lab technicians, mental health workers and histologists.
“Because of the success of that plan in lowering our costs and focusing our resources on quality patient care, we’re in a better position to take on the effects of the recession,” Brazeau said.
Brazeau also said the cuts that were made have not affected the hospital services but rather focused more on improving quality of care.
“It’s still tight, it doesn’t mean we’re going to be able to do anything extra with it,” Brazeau said. “In fact, it still means we have to become more efficient as a hospital with the funding we receive.”
Brazeau explained that the overall budget for RVHS is almost $300 million, and that the increase will not necessarily bring new services to the hospital.
“It isn’t extra money at all but we’ll be able to maintain the services we have to,” Brazeau said.
As for the provinces, population continues to age and inflated costs rise in hospitals that will need even more funding.
“Because we’ve been able to eliminate our deficit in the last two years, that has put us in a better position so that we can get by on the 1.5 increase that the government has proposed,” Brazeau said.