Next year’s budget for the London Health Sciences Centre is expected to see a $30-million drop, but the hospital is hoping to avoid job cuts.
The news comes a day after St. Joseph’s Health Care announced 59 positions were being cut and 37 staff had been given layoff notices.
Tony LaRocca, vice president of community and stakeholder relations, says the region’s biggest hospital is hoping cost-cutting changes will help prevent staff layoffs.
“If we get creative in terms of holding back on openings and working with the attrition that happens here naturally, we can mitigate as much as possible any layoffs to the street.”
The hospital employs about 10,000 people, and about 10 per cent of them retire, are promoted or leave the organization each year.
Leaving some of the vacated positions unfilled could save the hospital millions of dollars.
LHSC was in the same position last year, and was able to ease the situation through internal savings, like using more of the same products and buying in bulk, monitoring overtime hours and outsourcing transcription services.
LaRocca expects a similar strategy will be implemented this time, with reductions in contract workers’ hours and finding inefficiencies first on the list to find savings, before changing services and staffing.
“It is a big challenge and I think it would be premature to say in absolute terms that we can guarantee [it], but that’s our goal, and same with staffing. We’ll do everything we can to mitigate the impact on staff.”
