Southern Health is reporting a solid financial position through the first three quarters of the fiscal year up to December 31st. Ken Klassen, Vice-President of Finance and Planning, says they have a surplus of $5.7 million. He explains how they achieved that.

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Ken Klassen"There was some unforeseen funding that we received earlier in the fiscal year so that is part of the surplus. And, the other main part of it is that we've been trying to hold the line on things, just knowing the environment we're in in the province. So, as we have opportunities to save money, holding certain positions open and just looking for other ways of saving money, we've been able to maintain a fairly strong surplus position."

He emphasizes any positions that are held open do not involve frontline health care but are more on the administrative side of things. Klassen says the RHA started planning two years ago for leaner times and that has enabled them to maintain a better financial position than some other RHAs.

"I think the main difference, I'll say, is we saw the more difficult economic times coming a few years ago. We started to put measures in place that would help us when the times got more difficult because, once you're into the very difficult times when the funding is frozen or there are even cutbacks, it's very difficult to put those things into place. Health care moves very slowly and the decisions that we make now, we often don't see the results of those from a fiscal standpoint, for about two years."

Klassen adds they are projecting a year-end surplus of $1.5 million. Southern Health has an annual budget of $370 million or just over $1 million per day.