FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Stratford, ON – Health care workers represented by the Canadian Union of Public Employees held a rally outside local Tory MPP Matthew Rae’s office on Tuesday in response to funding cuts by the Ford government.
The government recently directed the hospitals to plan for a two per cent annual increase in funding in each of the next three years, well short of the six per cent per year increase in costs, precipitating cuts in hospitals in almost every community.
At least 1,000 jobs are being cut in hospitals in North Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, Niagara and the GTA, as the Ontario Hospital Association warns of “no easy choices” in the wake of the billion dollar province-wide deficit.
“It’s inexcusable to cut funding while 73,000 patients are waiting longer than clinically recommended for their surgeries (up from 36,360 in March 2019) and 2,000 are languishing on hallway stretchers (up from 850 in 2018),” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, which represents 45,000 health care workers including staff at Stratford General Hospital. “The PC funding plan through to 2027-28 will have devastating consequences for many people needing hospital treatment in Ontario.”
In October, the non-partisan Financial Accountability Office of Ontario revealed that the government’s plan would lead to more than 9,000 nursing and PSW job cuts and nearly 2,400 hospital bed closures.
Considering that 2,000 people in Ontario receive care in hospital hallways due to insufficient bed capacity, how can the government even conceive of bed reductions? said Hurley.
Last week, the union released a new research report, “Driven to the brink: projected cuts to intensify Ontario’s hospital crisis,” which contrasts the additional resources required to simply maintain existing service levels with the government’s planned cuts, highlighting a 4,080 staffed bed capacity shortfall in the system by 2027-28.
These problems are self-inflicted as Ontario funds and staffs its hospitals at the lowest rate across Canada, said Sharon Richer, Secretary-Treasurer of OCHU-CUPE..
“We need a significant increase in beds and staffing levels,” he said. “We need this to clear the backlogs, end delays, and to reduce ‘hallway healthcare’ as the Ford PCs promised in their 2018 election campaign. We also need this to keep up with increasing demand pressures from a growing and aging population.”
The union is recommending the following actions by the provincial government:
- In the short term, add 6,200 staffed beds to: get patients off hallway stretchers, allow for aging and population growth and clear the backlog of people waiting for surgeries
- Increase core hospital funding by $3.2 billion to clear deficits and hire additional staff
- Fund hospitals at their real costs (6% per year) with a multi-year funding commitment
-30-
For more information, contact:
Zee Noorsumar, CUPE Communications
647-995-9859
