CAMBRIDGE — There’s enough provincial money flowing into Cambridge Memorial Hospital to do a good job caring for patients, its new president says.

“We get $100 million a year — that’s a lot of money,” said Patrick Gaskin, after his five-year contract was announced Tuesday.

“We can deliver the (patient) volumes based on the accountability agreement.”

That doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy to finish restructuring hospital operations, shedding 85 jobs and erasing what was projected to be an $11-million, two-year shortfall. To do it, Gaskin wants to give staff the skills and training needed to find and implement solutions that save money and improve patient care.

“You can’t achieve accountability if you don’t develop your people,” he said.

“It’s difficult to remove dollars from an organization but it’s more difficult to sustain change in your organization.”

Gaskin is also expected to be the face of Cambridge Memorial Hospital in a community where some people don’t know what to believe after a decade of fiscal and management turmoil. Citizens twice watched the provincial government move in to take control of their hospital.

Gaskin was appointed acting hospital president in September, after Cambridge Memorial was placed under supervision for not balancing its books.

He previously worked at Grand River Hospital as vice-president from 1998 to 2007, then as vice-president at London Health Sciences Centre.

Gaskin was born in Saskatchewan, grew up in Georgetown, and now lives in Waterloo.

Susan Gregoroff was hired as vice-president and chief nursing executive May 31. Mike Prociw will start as vice-president of finance Sept. 7.

Previous hospital president Julia Dumanian was terminated in September by provincial supervisor Murray Martin.

Dumanian’s salary in 2008 was $377,925 and $336,225 in 2009. She received a $650,000 severance, paid for by the province in a special grant.

Gaskin’s base pay is $285,000, with a potential annual bonus of $57,000 — for a total of $342,000. He’s also entitled to a $1,000 a month car allowance and six weeks vacation.

Hospital board chair Chuck Phillips said Gaskin was always the leading candidate, after seeing how he managed the budget-balancing work over the last 10 months. No others were interviewed for the job.

Phillips said Gaskin will earn his performance bonus in the first year based on how well he balances the books. In subsequent years — as spelled out by new provincial legislation — Gaskin will get the bonus based on patient care criteria.

Gaskin’s pay wasn’t compared to Dumanian’s contract, Phillips said. It was compared to the pay of hospitals of similar size in Ontario.

During a news conference, Gaskin repeatedly deflected questions asking him to compare his style to Dumanian’s. There are obvious differences, however

Where Dumanian was flamboyant and assertive, Gaskin is reserved and thoughtful. He’s more about conciliation than confrontation. He hides from the limelight while heaping praise on his management team and front-line hospital workers.

Gaskin drives a Toyota Prius hybrid. Dumanian drove a Mercedes sedan.

As part of fulfilling the deficit-busting budget for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2011, Gaskin’s focus is on “skilling up leaders to lead” the ongoing transition and giving “strong, clear direction” to do their jobs.

Gaskin says the hospital lacked support and training for senior staff, so he’s emphasizing that this year.

He’s taken senior managers on tours of the Cambridge Toyota factory, to learn about the Japanese continuous improvement culture first hand. He wants to empower staff to make suggestions and carry out improvements.

He’s also prepared a $3.5 million shopping list of hospital equipment this year. New computers, medicine dispensing cabinets and two new fluoroscope machines are needed to replace two that recently died.

The previous hospital administration complained about chronic provincial underfunding and feared losing services to other hospitals. For Gaskin, the quest all about building connections to get Cambridge patients faster access to services like Kitchener’s St. Mary’s cardiac care centre, or the cancer clinics at Grand River Hospital.

“It’s how do we work within the system? We can’t stand alone as an island in the system.”