MEDIA RELEASE
For Immediate Release
April 3, 2013
LONDON, Ontario - Today, London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) notified staff and union partners of its 2013/2014 budget assumptions and related plans, which are expected to largely avoid layoffs. The plans will see between 50-60 positions reduced over the course of the year as efficiencies are realized. These reductions will be managed within the normal turnover experienced at LHSC in order to mitigate the impact on staff as much as possible.
For fiscal 2013/2014, LHSC anticipates a budget challenge of about three per cent ($30 million) to offset inflationary pressures. While challenging, LHSC leadership remains confident that the needed savings can be achieved while meeting the hospital’s volume, quality and safety imperatives and objective of continuous improvement.
The LHSC budget plan was developed in alignment with the province’s health system funding reform, which will see a shift of resources from hospitals to primary care and community based services over the coming years to enable better resource utilization at hospitals and provide care closer to home for patients.
“We support the need for system transformation that will alleviate the current volume pressures on hospital resources and we want to be constructive partners in driving that system change,” said Murray Glendining, acting President and CEO, LHSC. “In that spirit, we have established 13/14 budget plans designed to go unnoticed by the patients we serve, while at the same time achieving our savings objectives and minimizing the impact on our staff to the extent possible.”
With approximately 10,000 employed at the hospital, LHSC experiences turnover of some 400 staff each year. By managing necessary reductions through this natural attrition, minimal, if any, layoffs are expected in fiscal 13/14.
The reduction of 50 - 60 positions throughout the next year represents about one-half of one per cent of LHSC’s total workforce. These efficiencies will be achieved by implementing proven quality models learned through benchmarking with peer hospitals, where services are being delivered at, or above, targeted quality levels and at a lower cost. This will include reducing 24 positions from the current staff of over 3,600 nurses. The remainder of positions to be reduced is spread across administrative and support areas, plus the reassignment of a few technicians due to technology advancements.
The vast majority of savings are being achieved through other measures, including a one per cent efficiency requirement for all areas of the hospital, adoption of new technologies, standardization of supplies and reduced casual hours of work.
“Our goal is to deliver high-quality care and to do so in the most efficient way possible,” adds Glendining. “To best care for the region's most acute patients, the system must change and our hospital must also do some things differently.”
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About London Health Sciences Centre
London Health Sciences Centre has been at the forefront of medicine in Canada for 138 years and offers the broadest range of specialized clinical services in Ontario. Building on the traditions of its founding hospitals to provide compassionate care in an academic teaching setting, London Health Sciences Centre is home to Children’s Hospital, University Hospital, Victoria Hospital, the Kidney Care Centre, two family medical centres, and two research institutes – Children’s Health Research Institute and Lawson Health Research Institute, a joint research initiative with St. Joseph’s Health Care London. As a leader in medical discovery and health research, London Health Sciences Centre has a history of over 65 international and national firsts and attracts top clinicians and researchers from around the world. As a regional referral centre, London Health Sciences Centre cares for the most medically complex patients including critically injured adults and children in southwestern Ontario and beyond. The hospital’s nearly 15,000 staff, physicians, students and volunteers provide care for more than one million patient visits a year. For more information visit www.lhsc.on.ca
Contact Information:
Marek Kubow
Communications Consultant
London Health Sciences Centre
519-685-8500 ext. 75155
Marek.Kubow@lhsc.on.ca
After-hours assistance:
Call LHSC Switchboard at 519-685-8500 and ask to page the communication consultant on-call
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