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Campbell summons regional health brass for private 'conversation'
THE VANCOUVER SUN
October 25, 2006
by Vaughn Palmer
While the B.C. government continues the public side of its "conversation on health," an exchange of a different kind will be taking
place in private later this week.
Premier Gordon Campbell has convened a meeting Friday of the government-appointed chairs of the six provincial health
authorities at the cabinet office in Vancouver.
In typical fashion, the premier's office disclosed little about the reason for this command performance.
But I gather it was prompted by concerns over spending, and the likelihood that some, maybe all, of the authorities will
need a budget top-up sooner or later.
The meeting follows the disclosure last month by Finance Minster Carole Taylor that the health authorities were
claiming new spending pressures of $1 billion over three years.
A clearly taken aback finance minister vowed to "actively move someone in to discover what the pressures are."
In actuality, she sent in a whole team of officials. Despite their best efforts, Taylor said Tuesday, the ministry of
finance is still looking for a complete answer.
As a result, Taylor will be front and centre at Friday's meeting, along with the premier and the minister of health, George Abbott.
As for the mood at the health authorities, I'm hearing a mix of anxiety and anger. The boards, chairs and CEOs were all
recruited on an understanding that the authorities were expected to manage the system with minimal political interference.
Then came the surprise departure of the official who had been their main point of contact in central government,
deputy minister of health Penny Ballem. Following her departure, Campbell met with the board chairs and reminded them of the need to
keep a lid on costs.
That was followed by the authorities notifying Taylor of an unbudgeted $1 billion worth of spending pressures.
In response, they all got letters advising that for this year (i.e. the financial year ending March 31 2007) they were to
manage within existing funding and without reducing service levels.
A neat trick if you can pull it off, and some of the authorities seem poised to do so. But not the Vancouver Coastal Health region,
serving the province's largest city, the North Shore, Richmond and part of the south coast.
Coastal is looking at a deficit of between $60 million and $70 million on the roughly $2-billion budget for the current year.
But other health authorities are watching closely. They've taken tough measures to bring their budgets into line.
If the government lets Vancouver Coastal off the hook, it might send the wrong message to other health managers about
the need to stay within targets for years two and three of the fiscal plan.
The premier, like Taylor, is inclined to take a hard line on the need to manage within budgets.
But neither wants a high profile controversy about health cuts that would play into the hands of Opposition critic Adrian Dix.
So there's plenty for them to talk about on Friday. Alas, this is one conversation on health the rest of us won't be invited to join.
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