Shared Health is slashing a slate of administrative positions and shuffling other employees into new roles in a move that aligns with a provincial mandate to reduce ballooning bureaucracy in the health authority.
The provincial body overseeing health care has eliminated roughly 24 administrative positions, including some senior managers “that no longer fit within our organization,” CEO Lanette Siragusa said in an email Monday.
“These were difficult decisions but necessary to ensure we are able to invest and focus on our mandate, including high priority areas that support improved access, quality care and outcomes for patients,” Siragusa said.
MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES
Lanette Siragusa, CEO of Shared Health, confirmed Monday roughly 24 positions were eliminated.
Ten of the staff accepted severance packages, while the remaining employees were shuffled into different roles in other “priority areas” within the organization, she said.
The restructuring, which took place last month, will generate annual savings of about $1 million. That money will be reinvested in supporting clinical teams and delivering patient care, she said.
Only non-unionized staff who do not provide patient care were impacted by the changes, Siragusa said, noting “patient care is unaffected.”
The cuts align with marching orders handed down by the province in February, when Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara penned a mandate letter to newly elected Shared Health board chair Dr. Brian Postl.
The letter asked Shared Health to “ensure resources are directed to the front lines rather than the excessive health-care bureaucracy.”
“Our government is focused on improving patient experiences in the health-care system and listening to health-care workers,” Asagwara wrote at the time.
“Central to these goals is a commitment to improve the culture in our health-care system by centering patients at the heart of every decision and adopting a ‘patient-first’ mentality within the health-care bureaucracy.”
Asagwara also asked the health authority to cut down on overspending.
The health minister did not respond to requests for comment Monday, but a spokesperson noted Asagwara’s office is not directly involved in any human resource decisions made by Shared Health.
Shared Health was established in 2018 by the former Progressive Conservative government. It was designated the provincial health authority following the passage of Bill 10 in May 2021.
The organization is responsible for the co-ordination and oversight of health-care services in Manitoba, including emergency medical services and diagnostics, and is the governing body for the Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg.
Shared Health spent $118 million on administration last year, according to its 2022-23 annual report.
The numbers account for about eight per cent of the authority’s total spending last year, and roughly double what it spent on administration the previous year.
tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca
Tyler Searle
Reporter
Tyler Searle is a multimedia producer who writes for the Free Press‘s city desk. A graduate of Red River College Polytechnic’s creative communications program, he wrote for the Stonewall Teulon Tribune, Selkirk Record and Express Weekly News before joining the paper in 2022. Read more about Tyler.
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