MUSKOKA — Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare could be seeking capital funding from the District Municipality of Muskoka.
MAHC interim chief executive officer Barry Monaghan met with Huntsville district councillor Fran Coleman to discuss the proper steps to access capital dollars for the beleaguered health care organization, which is grappling with a projected $5.8-million operational debt load by the end of the current fiscal year.
“We’re stepping back and looking at what are the current pressures that we have and what are the higher areas of priority,” said Monaghan.
Back in October, the District Municipality of Muskoka approved a $3-million capital commitment over 10 years to the development of the Simcoe-Muskoka Regional Cancer Centre at Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie. It has forwarded $300,000 to the initiative from a $500,000 health fund established by levying property tax payers. At the time, MAHC had also requested capital funding from the district, but was denied.
According to hospital spokesperson Tammy Tkachuk, last March the organization applied for a picture archiving communication system (PACS) and lab information systems for a total of $6 million, to no avail.
Monaghan said there are no plans to request operational dollars from the district.
“We wouldn’t do that,” he said. “Regional, district and municipal governments are not typically interested in funding operations that are a provincial responsibility.”
The province funds the majority of Ontario hospital budgets by flowing dollars through local health integration networks.
MAHC submitted its final deficit recovery plan to the North Simcoe Muskoka Local Health Integration Network at the end of January.
Hospital administrators met with LHIN staff to review the plan, which the LHIN will discuss at its March 25 board meeting.
That doesn’t mean that MAHC won’t move ahead with its debt reduction plan, which includes job and service cuts, cautioned Monaghan.
For example, he said, while job cuts haven’t officially started, the organization is not replacing positions that may be left vacant when people retire or leave the organization.