Making the mortgage for St. Joseph Hospital’s $118 million expansion project may depend on the state budget, which if it goes forward as proposed, would mean serious cuts to health care.

St. Joseph Hospital president and chief executive officer Joe Mark on Wednesday said he was recently informed that legislative representatives agreed to a 10 percent across-the-board cut that would provide $3.6 million less in Medi-Cal reimbursements to the Eureka hospital and Redwood Memorial Hospital in Fortuna.

He also learned that hospitals without Medicaid-managed care would also be affected by the state deficit, which translates to a $2.1 million loss to St. Joseph.

“We’re not in a position to take these levels of cuts,” Mark said. “It’s something we can’t take without a fight.”

Mark was careful not to be too specific about what areas of service would be affected by the proposed cuts, but said it would put a strain on wage increases. Doctors may also cut back on the amount of Medi-Cal patients they are willing to see, he said.

In other business, Mark announced that the Redwood Women’s Health Center, an obstretical gynecological clinic in Fortuna, will become a private practice starting June 30. The clinic, to be called Redwood Women’s Center, has been costing St. Joseph between $50,000 and $200,000 annually in subsidized funds. There were also issues related to what the Catholic-run health system would provide women in terms of birth control, Mark said. “It became a service issue to the people in the Eel River Valley,” he said. The Catholic-sponsored health care system can’t provide any type of birth control, Mark said.

The Eureka hospital will also be going completely smoke-free starting July 18, Mark said.

There currently are outside smoking areas, but Mark said smoking on a hospital campus is contradictory. Redwood Memorial Hospital went smoke-free in 2006.

“We think it’s a real paradox to permit smoking,” he said.