(June 7, 2006), Saskatoon – Saskatoon Regional Health Authority has approved a balanced annual operating budget of $668 million for 2006-07. This is an increase of $31.5 million, or 5.5 per cent, from the previous year's operating expenditures. The overall budget is equivalent to the spending of $1.8 million a day in meeting the health needs of the nearly 300,000 residents of the Health Region and the thousands of others from across the province whom come to Saskatoon each year for specialized health services.
"This budget enables us to provide services and programs at levels similar to those of past years, while providing additional investments within the available human resources to support the emerging strategic priorities of the organization related to access, quality and standards of care, safety, health promotion and illness prevention, and workplace health," says Maura Davies, President and CEO, Saskatoon Health Region.
Overall, 64 per cent (almost $426.5 million) of the budget funds services provided in hospitals. Another 19.5 per cent ($130 million) is spent on long-term and continuing care services, 10 per cent ($65 million) for home care, public health and other community-based services, 5.2 per cent ($35 million) on program support, and 1.7 per cent ($12 million) on ancillary and special funded programs.
Of the $31.5 million in new funding, approximately $20.2 million will be used to improve the wages of health care providers. The Health Region, with more than 11,000 people on its payroll, spends 76.1 per cent ($508.6 million) of its budget on salaries and benefits.
The budget supports a number of program enhancements to:
- surgery and diagnostic services
- cardiac catheterization
- emergency services
- pediatric care
- chronic disease management, therapies’ services and stroke management
- addictions services (Project Hope initiatives)
- primary health care
- standards of care in long-term care facilities
- health promotion and illness prevention for initiatives related to the rise in HIV/AIDS diagnoses, child immunization, and reduction in health disparities
- home care and rural services
- influenza pandemic planning
Also at its public meeting on Wednesday, the Authority approved going forward with a medical equipment and capital budget of $23.1 million. This money will be used for the purchase of both clinical and non-clinical equipment and for such capital projects as renovations to the neonatal intensive care unit at Royal University Hospital, continued planning for the "children’s hospital within a hospital," nephrology services managed by St. Paul’s Hospital, and ongoing commitments related to the development of a new mental health in-patient building, redevelopment of Oliver Lodge, and the St. Elizabeth’s Hospital and Humboldt health services redevelopment project.
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EDITORS: For more information, please call Kerilyn Voigt, Corporate and Public Affairs Adviser, 306.655.3386
Saskatoon Health Region
"Healthiest people, healthiest communities, exceptional service."
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