Millions for ads and a private jet as deficit-strapped hospitals slash hundreds of staff, harming patient care

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Ford government must fund hospitals at their real costs to protect patient care from deteriorating, says the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

“The government is choking hospitals of funding and forcing deep staff cuts. Its self-aggrandizing advertising campaign would have covered the deficit at the Ottawa Hospital. The private jet for the premier would cover the deficit of the Elizabeth Bruyere,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), which represents 45,000 staff in hospitals and long-term care. “Meanwhile, patients line hallways and wait, anxious in pain, months for surgeries. It is time for the Ford government to flow significant funding to the hospitals and protect patient services.”

The province announced funding of up to four per cent for hospitals for 2026-27, but the union points out that hospitals need six per cent annual increments just to provide services at their current level.

Most hospitals have significant deficits and this is causing them to eliminate thousands of positions, threatening access and quality, while lengthening wait-times, noted Hurley

“There is money available that could stop the hospital cuts immediately. Hospitals are cutting positions even as rising patient volumes and insufficient staffing levels doom patients to longer waits and staff to impossible workloads,” said Sharon Richer, secretary-treasurer of OCHU-CUPE. “To provide better patient care, hospitals should be ramping up recruitment. But the primary consideration here is to reduce fiscal deficits, which have ballooned due to government underfunding.”

In April, two major hospitals announced nearly 700 layoffs cumulatively in the face of budget deficits. The Ottawa Hospital is cutting 400 jobs (predominantly nurses and PSWs) while the London Health Sciences is eliminating 288 nursing positions. These cuts come on the heels of a wave of layoffs in hospitals across the province, including 55 at Bruyere Health.

In surveys conducted by CUPE at hospitals implementing job cuts, staff have expressed concerns about worsening working conditions and the concomitant impact on patient care:

• “The public should know that hospitals are no longer safe. Lack of appropriate staffing makes it difficult to provide the care we desperately want to provide.”
  
  
• “The job cuts will cause increase in wait times. Job satisfaction will continue to decline. Patients will suffer the consequences. This continues to make the workplace unsafe and increases risks around violence.”

“The average ER patient in Ontario is currently waiting nearly 19 hours for admission due to a shortfall in staffing and capacity,” Hurley said. “Hospitals fail to admit 71 per cent of these patients on time within the eight-hour target. 2,000 are on hospital stretchers waiting for beds. 200,000 people are waiting for surgeries. You would think that the government would be doing everything possible to retain and recruit staff.”

The union is calling for stable, multi-year funding for hospitals. While the government has failed to increase funding to match costs, the funding process is unpredictable and destabilizing.

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