The London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is closing 11 surgical beds as it continues to work to rein in a multi-million dollar deficit.
The hospital confirmed on Wednesday the 11 beds are on the burns and plastics unit at Victoria Hospital and the closures are part of a three-year financial recovery strategy.
"A key component of this strategy is a comprehensive capacity management plan to standardize the approach for patient access and flow, invest in transitional care models in partnership with the community and optimizing planning to decrease overall patient length of stay while improving patient safety, quality and experience," Vice President of Clinical Services Julie Trpkovski said in a statement. "We are confident our surgical volumes including burns and plastics can be managed effectively by reducing the number of beds across the surgical units without impact to safe patient care."
The bed closures will have "minimal" impact on staff, Trpkovski added.
Southwestern Ontario’s largest hospital network revealed in June that it ended its last fiscal year with a $24-million deficit and has to find additional savings of approximately $28-million or roughly two per cent from its $1.2 billion 2019/2020 budget. At that time, all departments within the hospital were asked to find saving strategies equal to two per cent to 2.5 per cent of their budget.
Other cost saving measures previously announced by the LHSC include drastically reducing staff hours, voluntary exits of non-union employees, a temporary hiring freeze of non-clinical staff, and natural attrition.
The budget shortfall is the result of years of chronic underfunding, according to LHSC officials.
Most recently, Ontario hospitals received $384 million or 2.05 per cent in additional funding from the Ford government in its inaugural budget in April. However, that was less than the 3.45 per cent increase the Ontario Hospital Association had recommended.
