MONTREAL — The Quebec government is stepping in to help the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) get its finances under control.
The JGH has a $14.3-million accumulated deficit, the largest of any Montreal- area hospital except for the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), which encompasses six hospitals, and is in the hole for $20 million.
On June 18, Health and Social Services Minister Gaétan Barrette announced the appointment of Dr. Michel Bureau to act as special monitor. His mandate is to see that the JGH balances its budget by March 31, 2015. The mandate could be renewed, if necessary.
Bureau has been the monitor to the MUHC since December 2012.
Between now and Aug. 15, Bureau and the JGH are expected to draw up a plan to get the JGH out of the red without affecting services to the public, Barrette stated in a press release.
If, by Jan. 15, Barrette is not satisfied that sufficient progress is being made, Bureau could be accorded greater
powers to intervene.
Bureau has long experience in the health system, including serving as dean of medicine at the Université de Sherbrooke and director-general of health services and university medicine in the health ministry.
The 637-bed JGH’s operating budget is about $348 million.
All of the JGH’s current construction projects have been put on hold by the government, including Pavilion K, the new critical-care wing. The first phase of that project, a state-of-the-art emergency department, opened in February.
The JGH maintains that its spending has ballooned because it is chronically underfunded. The number of patients it sees, especially those seeking treatment at its Segal Cancer Centre, has soared.
Executive director Dr. Lawrence Rosenberg said in May that the number of patient visits to the centre jumped from 55,000 in 2009 to 90,000 this year, while funding has remained unchanged.
Many are coming from off the Island of Montreal, particularly from Laval and the South Shore. The health ministry is trying to encourage people from those areas to go to cancer centres closer to their homes.
The new emergency room has also attracted more people. Admissions through that department have climbed 20 per cent, the JGH says.
JGH director of finance, Laurent Ziri, said the institution looks forward to continuing to work with the ministry to reduce the deficit.
Headway has already been made. In 2011-2012, the JGH had a $25-million deficit. The government injected an extra $8 million, while the JGH cut $10 million over the past three years in areas that do not affect patients, said Ziri.