Prairie North Health Region passes status quo budget
Prairie North Regional Health Authority (PNRHA) said the health region is staying status quo for its new budget in light of the province’s plans to restructure the 12 health regions in Saskatchewan and amalgamate to form one single health unit.
Chief executive officer David Fan discussed the new operating and capital budgets covering the fiscal year from April 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018, following the Prairie North board meeting at Battlefords Union Hospital (BUH) Wednesday. The board approved the budgets, which will now be sent to the Ministry of Health.
“I think given the financial challenges of the province and the difficult budget we have received from the province, we have done well to put together a budget that does not call for any significant cuts or closure of programs and services,” Fan said. “But on the other hand, it doesn’t call for any new investment, simply because we just don’t have the financial resources to do that. So we have done well in terms of putting together a status quo budget.”
The board approved the operating budget of $290.5 million for 2017-18. Expenses are budgeted at $289.6 million. Following mortgage principal payments of $856,000, Prairie North expects to end the fiscal year with a small surplus of almost $10,500.