Ontario Hospitals Lay Off StaffAstounding as it is, Ontario hospitals are actually laying off nursing staff to try to balance their budgets! This is taking place even while the Ontario government, through Bill 195, has overridden collective agreements of frontline health care workers, claiming that extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary measures. Apparently that doesn't apply when it comes to adequate funding of hospitals. Here are but a few recent announcement of hospital layoffs:
Hamilton hospitals will be making $42 million in cuts this year, with more expected, to meet provincial 2023 spending targets. "There is nothing left to trim," said Dave Murphy, President of CUPE Local 7800, which represents 3,500 staff at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS). HHS has had an occupancy rate of over 100 per cent since August 2016. Southlake Regional Health Centre in Newmarket will be laying off 97 registered nurses. This works out to be more than 176,000 hours of direct patient care lost to cuts according to a September 22 ONA news release. ONA Bargaining Unit President Jill Moore said: "Nurses are working short-staffed, but one of our biggest concerns is surge capacity. When our patient numbers increase, as they typically do during a pandemic, we often do not have enough staff resources to provide quality patient care, let alone trying to serve a population that is growing by leaps and bounds. What is most distressing is that the employer has said that these 97 layoffs are the best-case scenario. I cannot imagine what more layoffs will do for patient care." Ontario Health Coalition Executive Director Natalie Mehra said in an October 2 statement: "Hospitals are reporting across Ontario that they have been promised their extraordinary COVID-19 pandemic costs will be funded, but much of the money has not flowed. Local hospitals are reporting deficits, some have layoffs, some are drawing down their cash reserves." She added that "hospitals have closed down thousands of beds even while suffering increased overcrowding. [...] The Ontario Health Coalition is calling on the Ford government to fund public hospitals and flow the money to stabilize and build needed capacity."
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Lakeridge Health
with five hospitals in Durham Region (including Oshawa, Pickering and
Whitby) informed the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) on September 11
that it is cutting eight full-time and six part-time registered nurses
from several of its units as it seeks to balance its budget. ONA
President Vicki McKenna said, "It's truly outrageous that this is the
route that management is taking to balance the budget and the residents
of Durham Region, who rely on Lakeridge for their health-care needs,
should be very alarmed."