Grey Bruce Health Services will hold community engagement sessions in the spring as they work towards reducing their growing operating deficit
Staff and physicians have been working for months to come up with potential ways to cut costs or increase revenue.
The board of directors met last Friday to assess the options, but asked for more information.
The board will look at the information at the end of February, and then stakeholder consultation will take place.
After many years of balanced budgets, provincial funding changes mean GBHS faces a $7-million deficit by 2018 if changes are not made.
“Adopting a longer-term transformational strategy for the organization and allowing time for an intelligent, sustainable redesign is not easy in the fast paced health care sector where short-term results are expected and rewarded,” says Lance Thurston, president and CEO for GBHS. “Corporate tolerance for risk and the unblinking resolve of corporate leadership to stay the course are required as we work through this financial challenge.”
Public meetings will be held this spring to talk about the sustainable redesign.
The board is also hopeful that by March the Ministry of Health will respond to requests for funding changes.