Health authority to cut jobs as it sets up in Saskatoon
Administration will take brunt of reductions, minister says
The provincial government does not know exactly how many jobs will be lost or how many of the more than 1,000 people responsible for administering 12 health regions will be forced to move when those organizations are amalgamated this year.
The new Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) will be headquartered in Saskatoon with some senior executives based in other major centres, but many details of the transition are still being worked out, Health Minister Jim Reiter told reporters Monday.
“There will be some positions eliminated (at the senior management level),” Reiter said, noting that the newly formed SHA will need one CEO and a few vicepresidents, far fewer than the 12 CEOs and 62 vice-presidents currently employed by the regions.
Saskatchewan’s health regions employ around 43,000 people. Reiter said that the effects of amalgamation will likely be limited to administrative positions, and that front-line medical staff “are going to see very little, if any difference.”
Senior managers at the province’s second-largest health region, meanwhile, are doing their best to raise morale and reassure administrative workers that comparatively few jobs will be at risk when the new health authority begins operations in the fall.
“Hopefully, we’ve been helping people understand that from the start,” said Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region CEO Keith Dewar, noting that the SHA will still require “a lot of very important and fulfilling administrative work.”
Through a spokeswoman, Saskatoon Health Region CEO Dan Florizone declined to comment.
The provincial government announced its plan to amalgamate the 12 health regions late last year, a few months before introducing an austerity budget intended to trim around $600 million from its $1.3-billion deficit.
Reiter and Remote Health Minister Greg Ottenbreit insisted, however, that while savings are expected to be between $10 million and $20 million by 2018-19, the decision was largely taken to eliminate administrative boundaries and improve patient care.
Asked for an example of how the new system will improve care, Ottenbreit cited patients who live close to one ambulance station but transported and cared for by another because of the way region boundaries are drawn.
The government’s announcement that the SHA’s headquarters will be in Saskatoon comes after the mayors of Moose Jaw and Prince Albert proposed it be located in their cities.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed that we didn’t get the head office,” Moose Jaw Mayor Fraser Tolmie said. “But we are grateful that … we will have a regional office in Moose Jaw, which means jobs.”
Amalgamation could deliver an unnecessary shock to a system already struggling to cope with cuts, and threaten to further erode the influence of “local voices,” especially from the north, on health care, said Saskatchewan NDP Health critic Danielle Chartier.
The Saskatchewan NDP has previously questioned the government’s savings estimate, which Reiter admitted Monday will be offset by severance packages expected to be given to many of the health regions’ top managers.
Asked about representation and the influence of regional voices in the SHA, Reiter said its board will include a First Nations person and reiterated his point that “distributed” senior leadership should alleviate concerns.