MONTREAL—After shedding 277 positions earlier this year, the McGill health network is preparing for another round of budget cuts to close its $50 million deficit.
This spring, the MUHC announced plans to save $29 million by cutting up to 200 positions. On Wednesday, the hospital network confirmed that 151 positions were closed, 13 managers were fired and a further 113 vacant positions will go unfilled.
However, the cuts aren’t enough and the MUHC is waiting for authorization from the Quebec government to further reduce spending by $21 million. As part of a second phase, McGill is eyeing six “optimization projects.” The MUHC is hoping to save in operating rooms, laboratories and more job cuts.
“Job closures need to be considered, that’s an unfortunate reality, but there are other things we can look at in each of those projects,” said MUHC spokesman Ian Popple. "We can try to renegotiate some of the suppliers we have to the hospital and other things."
The MUHC won't provide details on what cuts could be involved in the second phase, because the report is before the board of directors. Once the plan is approved, it will be sent to Quebec's health minister, likely next week.
The hospital network says it is planning the second phase not to impact patient care. Despite long waiting times, Health Minister Rejean Hebert says he has agreed to job cuts at the MUHC because the network could have had too much staff.
“There are too many workers hired by the institution,” said Hebert. “If you compare it to other university hospitals, there are too many workers without increasing the volume of activity or quality of services.”
Meantime, staff is bracing for more bad news.
"Is it going to be vacant positions? I'm not sure, because we didn't get the portrait yet, but we know they will cut some nursing positions," said Line Laroque of the nursing and cardio-respiratory professionals union.
