The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance (CKHA) is reporting an operating surplus of $2.1 million this fiscal year, down from $3.3 million last year.
In its 2022 financial statement for the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2022, the CKHA Board of Directors reported that everything from salaries to supplies and physician services cost more last year.
The financial statement also showed that funding for temporary physician pay jumped last year by $2.6 million and funding for nurse retention rose by $1.2 million.
CKHA reported it's premature to put a price tag on the COVID-19 pandemic to date, adding it continues to wait for provincial announcements regarding the funding formula.
"The Hospital continues to respond to the pandemic and plans for continued operational and financial impacts during the 2023 fiscal year and beyond," the financial statement read. "Management has assessed the impact of COVID-19 and believes there are no significant financial issues that compromise its ongoing operations. The outcome and timeframe to recovery from the current pandemic are highly unpredictable, thus it is not practicable to estimate and disclose its effect on future operations at this time."
The report also showed that the hospital's long-term debt also increased by $11 million, mainly due to the replacement of the health information system.
The cost of employee benefits went down by $128,000 a year.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance Foundation donated $560,000 last year to help the hospital, which is down from $893,000 in the 2021 fiscal year, according to the financial statement.
CKHA also thanked its dedicated staff in its annual report for being resilient during the pandemic.
"This past year has remained an unusual and unprecedented one. As the global COVID-19 pandemic continued on, CKHA remained resilient in its response to the needs of patients and families. It is still difficult to imagine that this virus remains steadfast across the world two years on. We extend our utmost gratitude to everyone across the organization – your dedication to safe, high quality care throughout another year of the pandemic is to be commended," said board officials. "The collective hope of staff, physicians and volunteers at CKHA to see the end of this pandemic has never wavered."