A spokesperson for Southern Health-Santé Sud says they are running a deficit at the midway point of the current fiscal year.

Ken Klassen is Vice President of Finance and Capital. He says after six months, they are reporting a deficit of $433,000.

"There are a number of factors that contribute to the deficit," notes Klassen. "We continue to see increased costs related to volumes primarily in home care and in our hospitals."

With an operating budget for the entire year of $393 million, Klassen says in actuality, the deficit is relatively small. He adds it is about .2% of their year to date budget . In fact, it costs more than $1 million per day to run the regional health authority.

Klassen says this deficit is somewhat concerning and he expects it will actually get worse as the year goes on.

"I think it would be safe to say that if things don't change it would be very easy to double this number that we have for September and that could be our projection," he says. "So just less than one million dollars by the end of the year."

But he says there are many factors that play into this, including other revenue sources or surprises that pop up along the way.

"It's challenging times for all regional health authorities as revenue is tight because provincial revenue is tight and costs are high," notes Klassen. "We do know that it is having a significant impact on us."

Furthermore, Klassen says two of the first six months were summer months and it tends to cost less in summer to operate the RHA.

"We are concerned that we are projecting a deficit for this fiscal year but we are doing all that we can to keep that under control and to minimize that as much as possible," he says.