$1.8 Million Dollar Surplus For Health Region

The Cypress Health Region is predicting a 1.8 million dollar surplus for this financial year.

CEO Beth Vachon says part of it comes from not covering salary for unfilled positions.

“We've had a number of vacancies of hard to recruit positions that we've been working on and actively recruiting for, but when we aren't able to fill those positions, of course we're not able to offer the service. That's a concern for us, but it also creates a positive varience in our budget because we're not expening those dollars.”

Vachon admits keeping rural areas fully staffed has been their biggest challenge.

“We are often one doctor or nurse or away from closing down facilities because we can't keep the doors open with the existing staff that we have. We are particulary challenged with that in our rural communities outside of Swift Current. We don't have the breadth of people we need.”

The health region will use any surplus money as a fund for any building or equipment problems that may pop up.