Sault Area Hospital Cutbacks: 73 jobs to go

The Sault Ste. Marie Hospital hopes to save $1 million by cutting 73 jobs. The hospital announced these cuts with an updated "Hospital Improvement Plan".

(Geez, I hope we don't see too many more "improvements".)

As usual, the hospital plans to reduce the number of "alternative level of care patients" (i.e. convalescing patients past the acute stage).

The trend however has been for an increase in these convalescing patients at hospitals -- Sudbury Regional Hospital recently released a report noting that ALC days at the hospital had doubled between 2004/05 and 2009/10.

And that occurred largely before the current squeeze on home care and slow down in the creation of new LTC beds.

dallan@cupe.ca

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