Dear Colleagues,

We're now 9 months in to our 2010-11 budget and, as in years past, everyone is working hard to ensure that UHN is in a balanced position at the end of March.  This year the challenges are a bit tougher, but having reviewed our balancing strategies, I'm confident that we will accomplish most of our goals in the Balanced Scorecard, including a healthy fiscal year end.

This is also the time that we look at 2011-12 and make assumptions about our budget and what we will need to do to deal with inflation, increased need for capital expenditure, and the fact that we anticipate that our funding from the government will not increase to the extent that it has in the past.  These are tough economic times and the government will be curbing its spending in many, many areas and healthcare will not be exempt from this restraint.  And, to add to the financial pressure, we feel that we can no longer delay some of the capital expenditures that we need to make on items such as infusion pumps, surgical equipment and anesthesia machines – none of which are cheap.

I think it is important to say to everyone at UHN that we will continue with the commitments that we have made in the past to our staff, our patients and our Board of Trustees. With careful attention to hiring practices we will avoid involuntary job loss, we will maintain our patient treatment commitments, and we will balance our budget in 2011-12.  This won't be easy and it means that we will be working with everyone in the organization to streamline processes, increase efficiency so we can continue to treat the patient volumes we have committed to, and continue with a focus on finding ways to avoid costs such as sick time and overtime.

The people of UHN are our most valuable resource and I am confident that each and every person receiving this e-mail will do their part to help us balance the budget this year and work to keep us balanced in 2011-12.

Bob

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