Andrea Klassen, KTW
A Kamloops MLA candidate wants to see the number of highly paid administrators in the Interior Health Authority be reduced, but the IHA says he's working off bad information.
Peter Sharp, the B.C. Conservative candidate for Kamloops-South Thompson, issued a press release recently criticizing the health authority for having almost one manager for every seven frontline employees.
Sharp put the IHA's administrative staff at 2,622 out of about 18,500 employees.
Peter Sharp, the B.C. Conservative candidate for Kamloops-South Thompson, issued a press release recently criticizing the health authority for having almost one manager for every seven frontline employees.
Sharp put the IHA's administrative staff at 2,622 out of about 18,500 employees.
"It almost seems like it's top heavy when all we get is complaints from the front-line workers that we are overworked, we are in crisis situation, and they've been asking for more people," Sharp said.
"The question I ask myself is, are all these people necessary? And the truth is, I don't know."
Sharp said since doctors and nurses are highly educated, they shouldn't need too much supervision from managers.
"We're supposed to be computerized and we're supposed to be high-tech and everything. I don't understand why we need so many managers at the kind of salaries they're making," he said.
IHA spokeswoman Tracy Watson said Sharp's numbers are wrong.
There are 2,622 people employed by the IHA making more than $75,000 a year, but only 500 of those are managers or administrators, Watson said.
That number also includes management positions filled by physicians, such as medical directors.
Watson said the management-to-staff ratio at the IHA "... is relatively lean considering the size of the health authority."
She said the IHA spent slightly less than the Canadian average on administrative costs, according to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, which tracks that data.
On average nationally in 2010 — the last year the institute has released data for — 4.62 per cent of the expenses of a health-service organization go to administration costs.
The IHA's administration expenses were 3.74 per cent of its total.