Despite a $360-million shortfall in funding for B.C.'s health authorities, the St. Mary's Hospital expansion is still on track and patients should see minimal effects on their care, according to Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).
"The short answer is: it will have no effect on St. Mary's. All the ongoing capital projects are going ahead as planned, so there's going to be a big beautiful hospital up there," said Anna Marie D'Angelo, spokeswoman for VCH.
Health Minister Kevin Falcon announced last week that the province would not increase funding to cover the $360-million deficit across B.C.'s health authorities and it would be up to them to find efficiencies.
D'Angelo said VCH was aware last year the cuts would have to be made. So far, 150 administrative cuts have been made across the region, saving about $23.6 million. She said most of those cuts were targeted for areas where patients are least likely to feel the effects including cuts in the information technology and communications departments.
"We're trying to protect our core patient services, so we're doing this with the intention of having minimal effects on patients," she said.
But, she added, elective surgeries will be reduced by 33 per cent during the 2010 Winter Olympics, something that had already been planned, and would help with cost trimming.
D'Angelo could not say how the cuts would specifically affect staff at St. Mary's.Nich-olas Simons, New Demo-crat MLA for Powell River-Sunshine Coast, said poor management practices by the provincial government are to blame for the shortfall and he believes patient care will suffer as a result.
"We've been put in a position where the essential health care services haven't been properly foreseen by this government," he said. "To say that we're not going to see an impact we're going to see definite impact on this government's mismanagement of the health file. There is no other way to put it."
Simons said there is a fundamental problem with the way the province funds the health authorities including issuing orders and negotiating pay increases, but not increasing the funding to the authorities to match the increased costs.
"The government is essentially dusting off their hands and saying, 'deal with it' and the impact of that is going to be significant on our communities," said Simons.
Instead, Simons said he would like to see the government put more funding into preventative care to reduce hospital costs down the line.
