Ontario nurses face major job cuts
Nearly 250 positions already slashed with more expected, NDP health critic says
Hundreds of nursing positions are on the chopping block at hospitals across the province, and many more will be in jeopardy until about mid-June, according to health officials.
Almost 250 nursing positions have already been cut as of April 9 and many more are expected to hit hospitals from Toronto to Sudbury, Ont., according to France Gelinas, MPP for Nickel Belt and health critic for the NDP.
“It’s happening at hospitals in southern Ontario, in southwestern Ontario, it’s happening in Toronto, it’s happening everywhere,” Gelinas told the Star Thursday.
She said nursing positions in hospitals are being cut wherever hospitals see an “opportunity,” such as retirements. She expects the wave of cuts to keep hitting Ontario hospitals until June, but said hospitals are already seeing a change in nursing care.
“There are 87,000 hours less of nursing care than we had on March 31, because we’re now (at) April 9,” —a new fiscal year, Gelinas said.
The NDP health critic said hospitals are struggling to balance their budgets and have been forced to make cuts wherever possible due to hospital budget freezes over the last few years.
“The patients will suffer the consequences . . . they’re moving into models of care delivery that we left in the ‘70s.” DORIS GRINSPUN CEO, REGISTERED NURSES ASSOCIATION OF ONTARIO
“From the emergency room to the medical, to surgical, to the mental health, the psychiatry, to OB-GYN — you name it, every unit in the hospital has been affected,” Gelinas said.
But Dr. Eric Hoskins, Ontario’s minister for health, says the cuts being reported don’t account for hiring announcements and shifting nurses to other high-demand areas like home care.
“We’re continuing to shift more resources to home and community care, for example, where Ontarians want to be and can, because of changes in technology,” Hoskins said, adding the Liberal government is increasing the home and community care budget by 5 per cent each year over the next three years.
“There’s going to be an ebb and flow (in hiring) as programs come and go,” he told reporters Wednesday.
This wave of cuts to nursing positions is worrisome and “out of the norm” according to Doris Grinspun, CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario.
Grinspun says registered nurses have been among the hardest hit in the bout of cuts so far, but the cuts won’t just affect nurses: she warns they could affect direct patient care.
“The patients will suffer the consequences because some of these organizations — the terrible thing is not only are they replacing RNs, but they’re moving into models of care delivery that we left in the ‘70s,” Grinspun said, describing dwindling one-on-one time with more qualified nurses.
The problem isn’t only government funding, Grinspun insists. “The RN hours of care is directly linked to health outcomes of patients and that if you want to have better outcome don’t get rid of RNs,” she said.