HOSPITAL staff in Swan Hill have breathed a collective sigh of
relief after being assured their jobs are safe, for the immediate future.
Swan Hill District Health management met on Tuesday to discuss how to
respond to a $378,000 cut from this year’s budget, after a Federal Government
decision to reduce Victoria’s health funding allocation by $106.7 million — a
decision made in the middle of the financial year.
Swan Hill District Health
chief executive officer Ted Rayment said the good news was that — at this stage
— all staff would be retained.
“We agreed that we do not need to offer
redundancies to staff,” he said.
“The reduction in elective surgery,
particularly over the holiday periods, is having an effect in terms of assisting
us to live within the budget cuts.”
Despite the comforting news for staff, Mr
Rayment could not make promises about what budget measures would or wouldn’t be
necessary in the hospital’s long-term future.
“Every month when we get the
results we’ll see if there are other adjustments that may be required,” he
said.
“If we have to close beds, then we will.”
For more on this story, see Friday’s edition of The Guardian (18/01/13).
