I’ll start this week by giving you the address for budget suggestions: SavingsSuggestions2015-16@uhn.ca We have created this so that you can send along your ideas about how we can work together to realize savings in the current budget year which started on April 1, 2015. As I mentioned before, we have identified $10 million of the $26 million we need to find, leaving us another $16 million to go. Justine Jackson and her team will be receiving your suggestions and thoughts about how we can work together to meet our budget target this year. And, as you’ll have read in the media after the provincial budget, the government has held the line on health care spending with some capital expenditures for hospitals. Most of the health spend is focused on supporting care at home and community services to keep people in their homes. Therefore, it is up to all of us to work together to realize savings and ensure that we are as efficient as possible.
I’d also like to mention the work that is underway to plan for the Pan-Am and Parapan-Am Games which Emergency Preparedness is working on under the leadership of Marnie Weber. There will be lots of information to come but there are two areas of note for everyone at UHN. The first is that there will be many areas of the city where traffic is restricted to allow athletes and officials the freedom to move quickly among sports venues. This means that you may have to plan for additional time to get to and from work – and the TTC may be your best bet. The second item of note is about the effect on our patients who may need extra travel time to get to their appointments. Soon, Marnie’s team will have the information on the traffic restrictions, with maps and we will post on both the intranet and the internet. During the Games we’ll be using the UHN Twitter account to provide information as quickly as possible.
On another note - for a number of years, UHN has had a Global Impact Award which has been won by individuals who have finished their UHN career and whose work has had a global impact in healthcare. This is wonderful but it also struck me that we should have a Local Impact Award as well! So I have asked Dr. Michael Baker and Gillian Howard to consider this and I’m pleased to say that Michael has agreed to Chair a committee which will look at submissions for this award. Michael and Gill tell me that we will be looking for current staff members or teams which have had a local impact in the past year, either on patient care or improving the experience of our staff in the workplace.
Peter
