More staff cuts could be on the way at Chatham-Kent Health Alliance as work continues to save $10-million over the next three years across the organization.
Hospital officials say the idea is to cut costs and re-invest $2-million of the savings into added patient care.
Jerome Quenneville, CKHA vice president and chief financial officer, says the health alliance is still $22-million in debt and expenses still need to be reduced.
"We need to get that full accounting bottom line balanced so we have dollars available to reinvest in our services, our building and equipment for the future and pay down the balance of the line of credit," says Quenneville.
CKHA has already cut 19 leadership positions to save $2-million and finished the fiscal year with a balanced budget for the first time in several years.
CKHA currently employs about 1,350 people.
Quenneville says every effort will be made to reduce staff through attrition.
"We have normal turnover where people leave, retire and such, which means there are about 70 people a year that naturally leave the organization," Quenneville says.
Quenneville says staff cuts should be finalized in a few weeks.
"Our costs for the services that we're providing today, when we compare ourselves to other hospitals, we're a little bit high. So, we need to continue to pay attention to that and bring ourselves more in line with what the expectations are," says Quenneville.
