{"id":68988,"date":"2016-01-14T22:32:46","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T03:32:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=68988"},"modified":"2016-01-15T01:28:37","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T06:28:37","slug":"ontario-nurses-associations-warns-hospital-layoffs-will-hurt-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/01\/14\/ontario-nurses-associations-warns-hospital-layoffs-will-hurt-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Ontario Nurses Associations warns hospital layoffs will hurt patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ontario<\/a><\/p>\n

TORONTO\u2014The Ontario Nurses’ Association is sounding the alarm about layoffs of Registered Nurses by cash-strapped hospitals, and warns patients will pay the price.<\/p>\n

The union, which represents 60,000 registered nurses, says there were 770 RN positions cut across Ontario last year, and hospitals in Windsor and Kitchener have already announced more RN layoffs this month.<\/p>\n

The hospitals decided to \u201crisk the health outcomes of patients by cutting RNs to balance the budget,\u201d said ONA president Linda Haslam-Stroud.<\/p>\n

Windsor Regional Hospital cut about 120 RN positions this week, but said it plans to hire 80 registered practical nurses, who do not need a university degree. The Grand River Hospital in Kitchener cut 38 RN jobs this week.<\/p>\n

Part of the problem is the government’s funding formula favours hospitals in high growth areas like Toronto, Markham, Richmond Hill and Barrie, which means less money for Windsor-Essex, said WRH president and CEO David Musyj.<\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally this is where we have been penalized as a hospital and region,\u201d Musyj said in a note to staff announcing the layoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust for this fiscal year, we are being told we will receive approximately $10 million dollars less in funding due to the formula.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hospitals are not allowed to run deficits, and Musyj said Windsor Regional \u201cwill return to balanced or surplus budgets\u201d with the staff changes.<\/p>\n

ONA said \u201chardly a day goes by\u201d where it doesn’t get a call from nurses at a hospital who say they’ve been told to expect layoffs.<\/p>\n

A four-year funding freeze means hospitals have less money for patient care because of inflationary pressures on wages and other costs such as heating and electricity, so they’re laying off nurses, said ONA vice-president Vicki McKenna McKenna.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely believe that this is all being driven by budget cuts,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Health Minister Eric Hoskins issued a statement saying hospitals are responsible for their own staffing decisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur expectation remains that they work closely with the LHINs to determine how best to manage their budget concerns in a way that sustains quality health services for the future and does not impact patient care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

A spokesman for Hoskins said the government consulted 500 \u201chealth system leaders, clinicians and experts\u201d on the design and implementation of the funding formula.<\/p>\n

\u201cHospitals, long-term care and community care providers are funded based on how many patients they look after, the services they deliver, and the specific needs of the population they serve,\u201d said press secretary Shae Greenfield.<\/p>\n

Ontario hospitals are in crisis because of the funding freeze, and nurses are being targeted while patients get decreased levels of care, said Progressive Conservative health critic Jeff Yurek.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you do frontline heath care cuts, the patient does suffer, care does diminish, because nursing is the backbone of the health care system, particularly in hospitals,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The New Democrats said freezing hospital budgets led to nursing cuts that directly impact patients.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would tell the government: stop the cuts to frontline care,\u201d said NDP health critic France Gelinas. \u201cI don’t want to be alarmist, but this will put patients at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gelinas is concerned that the push to home- and community-based care means diverting scarce health care dollars to for-profit companies contracted to provide those services, and said patients can wait up to 200 days for treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe money that goes to profit does not go to care, but it comes out of the same pie,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014The Ontario Nurses’ Association is sounding the alarm about layoffs of Registered Nurses by cash-strapped hospitals, and warns patients will …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":69049,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-68988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-original","mauthors-keith-leslie","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}