Changes are coming to South Bruce Grey Health Centre.
A total of 14.6 full time equivalents in the Dietary Department are going to be cut to save five hundred thousand dollars following a benchmarking exercise completed by Heath Care Management Inc.
SBGHC CEO Paul Davies says that will potentially equate to the loss of 21 positions, ranging from full time to part time to casual.
Davies says because some people hold positions in more than one sector, that does not mean 21 people will be cut.
He says some of those losing jobs will be offered early retirement while others are being offered a voluntary exit package.
The remainder of those to go will be given layoff notices and the seniority bumping process will begin.
Davies says they have a five-month window to get everything ironed out with the implementation of the changes won’t start in the smaller sites until July and the larger sites, next November.
Davies says patients will not notice a great change in the service they receive.
He says they’ll be creating pantries close to the nursing stations and there will be frozen portions of food made up ahead of time.
When the time comes, the food will be thermalized and then served.
Davies says the current cost of dietary department operations is 1.6-million-dollars.