The Grey Bruce Health Service will continue to bleed red ink for a little while longer.
That is the assessment in an external review of the Hospital operations requested by the South West Local Health Integration Network and the Hospital.
The report says by the end of this fiscal year the Grey Bruce Health Services will still have a 1.6 million dollar to 1.7 million dollar deficit after cutting costs.
Hospital administrators meanwhile are moving ahead with 6.2 million dollars in cost-saving measures that stop short of cutting patient services.
The review report stated it was important to move quickly with the cost cutting or the deficit will grow even larger.
GBHS had a budgeted deficit of 4.2 million dollars in fiscal 2008/09 budget year and was facing a larger deficit in 2009/10.
Extensive efforts by the hospital and external review team resulted in over 160 measures that could be implemented enabling the hospital to achieve 6.2 million in savings through increased revenues and cost reductions.
GBHS has already begun implementation of the majority of the measures in the recovery plan.
While having financial troubles the same is not the said for the level of patient care.
The report says the Owen Sound hospital was the most clinically efficient hospital of its peer group for last year and continued to demonstrate that efficiency this year.
Hospital President and CEO Maureen Solecki says Completion of this review represents a major milestone for our organization in our journey towards financial health.
She says they will work very closely with the South West LHIN and our health care partners to ensure that our plan minimizes the impact on access to high quality care for our patients.