London hospitals to cut $38 million this year. And that's the good news

The good news is that London Health Sciences is only looking to cut $30 million this year. They are actually facing a $47 million shortfall, but savings from the previous year mean that they only have to cut $30 million, the London Free Press reports.

The other, much smaller London hospital, St. Joseph's Health Care is shaving a mere $8 million off.

It's not entirely clear how the savings are going to be made. St. Joe's talked about reducing the number of sutures used in operations, and both the hospitals made the usual blandishments about transferring the work to home care

(God help them if they don't have some better ideas.)

Earlier, the hospitals had already moved to contract out 48 medical transcription jobs.

London Health Sciences leader Bonnie Adamson added, “We do not want to create fear and anxiety, but we do want to be candid about the realities that are expected to confront LHSC — and all major hospitals in Ontario — going forward. While (this year) will be a challenge, funding is expected to decline further next year and beyond.”

The Free Press adds that Ontario hospitals quietly received most of their budget numbers in the first week of June. This is the biggest dollar cuts publicly announced so far, however.

What's happening in most other hospitals remains even more unclear.

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