There was an awful lot to unpack last week after Haliburton Highlands Health Services (HHHS) held its annual general meeting in Minden.
The auditorium at the former hospital site was packed as community residents came out to hear HHHS president and CEO Veronica Nelson and new board chair, Irene Odell, discuss highlights from the previous fiscal year – the first since the Minden ER was shuttered on June 1, 2023.
There was reasonably good news to start out – Nelson confirmed HHHS has made significant strides reducing its deficit, reported as $2.3 million as of year-end March 31. This was a considerable drop from the $4.2 million deficit the organization reported at the end of the 2022/23 fiscal year.
That Nelson and her team has been able to bring that number down despite unprecedented wage increases brought on by the Ontario government repealing Bill 124, which cost the organization approximately $3.5 million – and deal with record inflation that saw operating costs rise $1.9 million – is impressive.
When The Highlander asked what plans HHHS had to balance the books, and when the public can expect to see the service back in the black, I expected a vague response with no real answer. So, when Nelson retorted that she hopes to eliminate the debt completely by the end of the next fiscal year, I was a little caught off guard.
In a world where hospitals provincewide are reporting massive increases to debt loads, with seemingly no path back to a balanced budget, it’s curious HHHS has been able to steady the ship. Or at least stop taking on water.
A big reason for the improvement is the near elimination of spending on agency nurses. At its peak in May 2023, HHHS used agency staff to cover 160 RN and RPN shifts that month. Most of those temporary workers were paid more than twice what full-time and part-time staff earned.
Nelson has overseen a remarkable turnaround on the staffing front since joining HHHS last summer. More than 80 new workers have been brought on board over the past year, while changes to the organization’s hiring practices has meant new hires are starting, on average, within 35 days of being offered a job, rather than the 84 days it was taking last year.
As someone who could never understand why or how the Ontario government could allow private entities to spring up demanding grossly overvalued terms for employees carrying out a much-needed service, I’m glad to see HHHS freeing itself from agency-related shackles. Here’s hoping it continues.
The most shocking tidbit of information for me was right near the end, when Nelson revealed HHHS has been engaged in strategic and master plan discussions for much of the past year. In its pre-capital submission on the master plan to the Ministry of Health, HHHS is projecting to more than double its capacity for inpatient admissions over the next 25 years. It also wants to significantly expand the number of long-term beds it has.
We asked if that level of growth can be sustained at the Haliburton hospital, or if an expansion, or even construction of a new facility, would be required.
Nelson didn’t give much away there – in truth, there wasn’t a whole lot she could say. But the fact HHHS is projecting numbers that will almost definitely mean it needs to invest in growing its Haliburton location, or building another, so soon after pulling services from Minden isn’t a great look.
Credit where it’s due, though. Since Nelson arrived at HHHS last summer, shortly after the decision was made to close Minden, she hasn’t shied away from the public eye. She hasn’t been afraid to answer tough questions. She’s provided the kind of stability HHHS needed after years of perceived mismanagement.
A fitting analogy given it’s graduation season, but Nelson gets a passing grade for her first year on the job.
