Despite plans to fire hundreds of front-line health care workers, the Provincial Health Services Authority is set to add more than two dozen positions to the ranks of senior management at an estimated cost of between $2 million and $4 million a year.
The PHSA has posted recruitment notices for 29 management positions on their web site including five business affairs directors, six finance corporate managers, two communications corporate directors and seven business analysts.
Many new positions result from recent changes announced by PHSA CEO Lynda Cranston to the organization’s finance department. Cranston also announced a reorganization of the PHSA executive management structure last month — the second time she has done so in four months.
Earlier this week, a CBC investigation revealed that 47 top managers at the PHSA earned salaries in excess of $125,000 a year. Last year, the authority budgeted $4.3 million for new corporate offices.
“It’s hard to imaging how swelling management ranks and tinkering with organizational charts will improve patient care,” says HEU secretary-business manager Chris Allnutt.
“How can this health authority justify management bloat when it continues to pursue plans to privatize critical support services and dump hundreds of skilled and experienced front-line workers on the street?”
The PHSA is currently reviewing proposals to privatize housekeeping and food services at Children’s and Women’s Health Centre and the B.C. Cancer Agency. If these services are contracted out, more than 500 workers — 90 per cent of them women — will lose their jobs.
-30- Contact: Mike Old, communications officer, 604-828-6771 (cell)