Thunder Bay hospital bed gridlock forces budget into deficit

An executive vice president with the Health Sciences Centre in Thunder Bay says gridlock is again digging into the hospital's budget.

Peter Myllymaa said that, by the end of March, he's projecting this year's deficit to be around $6 million.

Unless the hospital sees fewer patients, or receives more funding, that figure will likely be similar next year, he said.

The hospital is working "very closely with CCAC, with St. Joes, with the LHIN, to identify plans to be able to get that to happen," Myllymaa said.

"We're hoping that we're going to see something on that within the next year."

Hospital officials are hopeful the community approach will alleviate the gridlock issue in the future.

But "if the over-capacity pressure stays the same … we're going to see the same type of cost pressures," Myllymaa said.

"If the revenue picture doesn't change, then we still have the same amount of revenue, so one of those two items needs to be addressed."

Myllymaa said hospitals generally can't submit deficit budgets. But can in some cases — such as if they have a plan to get out of a deficit.

The hospital is currently making use of surplus working capital, which is why they have been able to table a deficit budget for 2014-2015.

In the past, the LHIN has also stepped in with money to cover a deficit.

Whether the hospital reserves will be able to withstand another $6 million deficit in 2015-2016 is another matter, he noted.

"It'll start getting tight, absolutely," Myllymaa said.

The 2015-2016 budget is being finalized and will go to the board for approval at the beginning of April.