Leadership changes made at top Manitoba health orgs

WINNIPEG – After healthcare audits found “unsustainable deficits”, the leaders of the two largest health authorities in Manitoba were replaced with temporary chiefs. Chris Christadoulou has been named interim CEO of Shared Health, health minister Uzoma Asagwara (pictured) said. Christadoulou is replacing Lanette Siragusa, who served as head of the health authority since April 2023, after becoming a familiar face in Manitoba during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jane Curtis, who agreed to leave her role as head of Southern Health, has been named interim CEO of the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, said Asagwara, calling her an emotionally intelligent leader. Curtis replaces Mike Nader, who had been in the role since April 2021.

Asagwara also thanked Siragusa and Nader for their work, saying the leadership roles “are difficult public service positions, [and] these are two folks who I know care deeply about Manitobans.”

Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative health critic, said she suspects Siragusa and Nader are “being scapegoated.”

She also said the province failed to commit to any of the recommendations in the reports or lay out a plan forward.

“I suspect that the news release today is laying the groundwork for what could be some very unpopular decisions,” she told reporters.

Staffing and rising supply costs are the main factors behind “unsustainable” deficits discovered at most of Manitoba’s health authorities over the last several years, according to audits recently released by the province.

Three audits, done by consulting firms Deloitte and MNP for fiscal years starting in 2019-20 until 2023-24, span over 300 pages altogether and examine the governance, budgeting and fiscal management of Manitoba’s health authorities, except for Southern Health.

The audits included CancerCare Manitoba, which was the only agency that didn’t report year-after-year deficits from 2019 to 2023, the audits say.

Salaries and benefits, including a new collective agreement that gave Manitoba nurses retroactive pay bumps, were a major factor behind the deficits, according to the audits. Increased costs of medicine and other supplies also were a major factor.

The audits suggest the organizations use zero-based budgeting, which would see them start from scratch and then create a budget matching expenses with revenue.

While the organizations are expected to function within the annual budgets issued by the health minister, the audits say it has “become unsustainable” for them to do so on their own, and government intervention may be needed.

The ongoing deficits also put the NDP government’s goal of balancing the budget by 2027 at risk, the audits say.

Manitoba health minister Uzoma Asagwara said the audits reveal a culture of dysfunction at the audited health organizations, which has resulted in fiscal mismanagement.

“Over and over again, health authorities are spending their resources on the wrong things,” including private agency staff, administration and contracts with health providers outside Manitoba, the minister said at a news conference.

Last month, the Manitoba government directed the Prairie Mountain Health Authority to cut private agency costs by 15 per cent. That came after the province ordered health authorities in December to redirect eight per cent of their administrative costs to the front lines.

The audits also recommend using the same software for Manitoba Health’s budgeting and forecasting across all health authorities in order to boost the speed, accuracy and transparency of their reporting.

They say Shared Health and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority need stronger demand projections, as their annual planning processes are largely based on past costs and demand, which can result in the authorities being one to two years behind demand trends.

The audits also recommend that if either of those health authorities reports a quarterly deficit, both should be required to put forward a list of cost-saving measures equivalent to three times the reported deficit within 90 days.