SUN President, Tracy Zambory RN, finds the proposed $38 million in RQHR budget cuts troubling. Some of the main areas of concern the region has earmarked for reduction to cover this shortfall and balance the budget include: Reducing 152 fulltime-equivalent positions through reallocating resources and better scheduling, reducing overtime hours and reducing orientation costs among others.

We need “better information on why nurses are working overtime as well as having organizations like SUN play more of an important role in conversations with management and the board” says Zambory.

“[Registered nurses] can understand what’s going on from the front lines. Our registered nurses are working to their full capacity. When we decide to make all these measures happen and make all these cuts, there’s still going to be the same amount of patients in Saskatchewan entering the health care system,” said Zambory, adding that patients entering the system are more sick than ever before.

BY PAIGE KREUTZWIESER, LEADER-POST

SOURCE: http://www.leaderpost.com/health/story.html?id=11091204

REGINA — The Regina Qu’Appelle Health Region (RQHR) is starting to feel the effects of the tight 2015-2016 provincial budget.

The plan to save $38 million in the $1.05 billion budget was approved by the Regina Qu’Appelle Regional Health Authority (RQRHA) board Wednesday night.

“It might be easier (to make decisions) if we had more money. But, sometimes not having money makes you a little bit more creative,” Keith Dewar, RQHR president and CEO, said Thursday.

Not much changed in the budget that was approved in principal on March 31, Dewar said. Reduction of overtime hours, sick-day costs and orientation costs still remain as commitments. The region expects to save $3.9 million, $2.5 million and $1.3 million, respectively, through those measures.

Even before that, with the recent reductions in surgical volumes and contracts already being organized with agencies like 3S Health, “we’re up over $10 million out of the $38 million we are looking for,” Dewar said.

Dick Carter, chairperson for the RQRHA, said none of the decisions from Wednesday will take away from patients receiving quality care.

“The very first thing the board and management have as a priority is ‘patient first’ and quality,” Carter added.

Unions, however, see the decisions differently.

“We’re yet again going to go down a road where everything is looked at in a silo rather than of a holistic system approach,” said Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN) president Tracy Zambory who finds the budget quite troubling.

Budgetary savings and improving the quality and safety of patient care cannot be found if the region continues with its current trends Zambory said, highlighting the reduction of 152 full-time equivalent positions.

Instead, she suggested better information on why nurses are working overtime as well as having organizations like SUN play more of an important role in conversations with management and the board.

“They can understand what’s going on from the front lines. Our registered nurses are working to their full capacity. When we decide to make all these measures happen and make all these cuts, there’s still going to be the same amount of patients in Saskatchewan entering the health care system,” said Zambory, adding that patients entering the system are more sick than ever before.

Scott McDonald, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3967, is also worried the required savings could lead to layoffs.

“CUPE staff are getting tired, they are getting stretched to the limit,” explained McDonald. “Our CUPE members pride themselves in giving quality care. In some instances that can’t happen — the staffing levels aren’t there.”

Dewar and Carter both acknowledged in this budget there is no contemplation of layoffs. However, the plan won’t be an easy ride for the region.

“(The board members) are going to be monitoring myself and the organization quite closely in terms of any triggers,” Dewar said.

Carter, who started on the board on April 1, said he is optimistic despite the government’s financial situation. He is confident the region will continue to provide quality care as well as being fiscally responsible.

Zambory does not feel the same way.

“Patients are being put at risk and it’s all around budgetary savings,” she said.