The budget of the Grey Bruce Health Unit is going up and the Medical Officer of Health isnt exactly jumping for joy over it.
Medical Officer of Health Doctor Hazel Lynn presented the 2009 budget to Bruce County Council yesterday.
The Health Unit is budgeting 13.2 million dollars for 2009 — a 3.8 percent increase from the 2008 budget.
The contribution of both Bruce and Grey County will each go up by 3 percent — Bruce County will contribute a little over 1 million dollars while Grey Countys contribution will be around 1.5 million.
Doctor Lynn says the Province sets the increase in the budget and this year allowed the Grey Bruce Health Unit to bump their budget by 3.8 percent.
She says the increase is due cost of the programs and adds the one being proposed wont be enough.
Doctor Lynn says the healthy babies program needs more funding if they really want to make a difference in children.
She says the funding for the smoke free programs havent been keeping up with the cost.
She says they want to make the community more aware of health issues and they need more people in order to do it.
Doctor Lynn says they had to layoff one more nurse and reduce another nurse to part-time status.
She says the move was a result of the union contract with the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA).
She says the nurses contract came at 7 percent which was above what they budgeted.
She says they had to look at efficiencies and by having everyone in one building they felt they should reduce the number of staff.
Doctor Lynn says the budget will be submitted to the Ministry of Health for approval.
She says she would like to get more money from the Province but they have gotten good at being efficient and credits staff for being innovative.