Planned Staffing Review at Hamilton Health Sciences Will Lead to Cuts, Warns CUPE, as Hospital Deficit Mounts Due to Government Underfunding

The Ford government has committed to covering only a fraction of hospital’s operating costs

HAMILTON, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The union representing about 4,750 staff at Hamilton Health Sciences is alarmed about the hospital’s staffing review in light of a $112 million projected deficit for 2024. The provincial government’s lack of commitment to covering full operating costs has prompted the hospital to look for cost-savings across programs and services.

“This is disturbing news,” says Jillian Watt, president of CUPE 7800, which represents staff across seven HHS sites. “We know that staffing review is code for cuts – at a time when we clearly need more workers to provide care, not less. Staff are stretched to their limit, and this is another big blow to staff morale. Things are already bad – why is the government trying to make it even worse?”

Watt said she was concerned about the impact on services as patients and workers have already suffered long enough due to chronic underfunding. She pointed out that the average wait-time for admission to Hamilton General Hospital from the emergency room was 19 hours, based on the latest available data from August – a direct consequence of the staffing and capacity shortfall.

“Currently, 82 per cent of patients at Hamilton General don’t get admitted within the eight-hour target time,” she said. “It’s scary to think that instead of taking every possible measure to improve services, we are talking about more cuts. It’s unconscionable and the people of Hamilton should be very upset.”

Earlier this year, a survey showed that 74 per cent of CUPE hospital workers in Hamilton said they were not staffed well enough to provide quality patient care, with a majority expressing lack of confidence in the provincial government’s ability to improve health care services.

Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), said it was appalling that the province is being coy with funding for the largest hospital system in the Hamilton-Niagara region.

“It’s unacceptable for the government to let patients suffer on stretchers in hospital hallways, to let patients agonize on waitlists for surgeries, to stretch patient wait-time in the ERs. After promising to fix this crisis in 2021 the government has allowed the problems of hallway medicine and lack of access to timely care to double in severity. Withholding vital funds from a hospital which is struggling to keep up with the demand for acute care from the people of Hamilton, turns its back on that promise,” he said.

“This is a disaster for the people of Hamilton and the staff who work so hard in its largest hospital network. We will use every tool at our disposal to fight these cuts and restore the quality of care in our public hospitals,” he added.

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