B.C's Interior Health Authority has managed to turn its budget shortfall into a $6-million surplus, but in the process 46 community health-care workers will have their hours cut. In September the health authority announced it was facing a $40-million dollar shortfall and embarked on a round of cost cutting in order bring its spending in line with its annual funding.Joanne Konnert, the chief operating officer for the Okanagan health services area, says there won't be changes in the service, just changes in the distribution of duties."The actual number of hours that we've been providing over the last couple of years has gone down because people have taken advantage of other services," said Konnert.
As a result, 46 workers who provide home support for the elderly or the infirm will be going from full time to part time, she said. "We actually had idle time in the middle of the day where folks didn't have residents or clients that they were going to see. So as we even that out, we will be providing the same level of service," she said. The $6-million surplus will be used by the health authority during the winter months when expenses and staffing needs are greater, said Konnert.
But Rhonda Croft, the regional chair of the B.C. Nurses Union in the Okanagan-Similkameen region, said the cuts are already having a negative impact on operations."This is not a widget factory. You can't just shut it down and not make more widgets. You're talking about more human beings, the patients and the staff working there and I've never seen it so bad, the morale so low," she said.
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