Southern Health-Santé Sud is keeping a close eye on its financial situation. The RHA is reporting a deficit of $974,973 in the first two months of its fiscal year. Chief Financial Officer Ryan Green says while it sounds like a substantial amount, it only represents about 1.7 per cent of their operating budget. Green says part of the reason for the increase is an increase in demand for some of their acute care centres, adding they've also seen a substantial increase in those accessing home care services. 

Chief Financial Officer Ryan Green

"We've seen volume increases that have been coming on since last year in home care. Some really large volume increases, but frankly if you can keep people in their homes and cared for, it's still cheaper than having them in a hospital bed. That's money well spent, and once the demand hits, it's really hard to control demand in health care. You need to be providing the services demanded in the region."

He says another contributing factor is the fact the provincial government has yet to announce they how much they'll be providing to health care across Manitoba. Green says that allocation tends to be announced at a different time each year, but notes with a new government in place it could be a bit later than usual.

Green says it's not unusual to see a bit of a deficit to start their fiscal year, noting the summer is often a slow period in which the RHA can recover some of their costs. He says while this current deficit is a bit higher than usual, they're not going to be taking any drastic actions.

"Volumes can change very, very quickly, and if volumes change quickly we have increased costs. We do expect this number to come down in the next couple of months. It's not unusual for it to jump around some. We have some concerns, clearly, when it starts off high, but we need to understand it and take a wait and see approach and not panic too much about what it is. We are definitely keeping a very close eye on it."

He emphasizes they're not anticipating making any cuts, noting they also have contingency reserves to fall back on, if needed.