The Saskatchewan Health Authority has approved its 2018-19 budget.
The first working fiscal document for the newly amalgamated board calls for an increase of 31.5 million dollars in base funding for account for operations at the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital due to open in 2019 and Saskatchewan Hospital in North Battleford.
There is also 200-million dollars in capital spending which includes continued construction at the Children’s Hospital.
Chief Financial Officer Robbie Peters says amalgamating services has been a challenge,
“Athough we’ve become one organization effective December 4th, there is still a lot to do to come together as a single organization. Certainly all of our service lines are not operating as one cohesive line right now.”
He notes that the other major challenge has been dealing with aging infrastructure, “The age of our assets is high, uh, and we are experiencing…ummm….you know, failures in whether it is heating systems or cooling systems, boilers, uh, roofs…we’re certainly seeing those impacts now.”