Defend Public Healthcare

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

Peterborough Regional Health Centre (PRHC) has announced that it will spend $8.2 million on severance and early retirement packages. The hospital is cutting over 280 jobs as part of the provincial government's hospital funding squeeze. With another $600,000 spent on retraining, the hospital's 2010-11 deficit will double to $17.8 million. PRHC president and CEO Ken Tremblay notes that the provincial government has sometimes given funding to help with one-time costs such as early retirement and severance packages when a hospital is cutting its deficit. "We haven't turned it into an ask, but we've certainly declared that the pressures that we face are significant...We're hopeful but ... the fiscal recovery plan contemplates that we self-finance this restructuring and we'll see how this progresses with each successive meeting with the LHIN." To cut costs, the hospital is driving down the average length of stay at the hospital. Length of stay in the

CUPE Local 1943 president Karen Ward has broken the news that Peterborough Regional Health Centre is planning to lay off 42 CUPE members.  CUPE's employment security language may help divert some of this into early retirements and voluntary exits. The hospital has already eliminated another 31 CUPE positions, through attrition and a hiring freeze. The hospital is meeting with its four union locals to deal with the layoffs. Earlier, the Ontario Nurses Association announced that 85 RNs will be given layoff notices with another 44 RN positions already eliminated. The two OPSEU locals at the hospital have already seen the loss of positions -- indeed, over 50 hospital paramedical and office positions remain vacant. A total of 182.3 full time equivalent positions (283 actual jobs ) are supposed to be eliminated across the hospital, making this the biggest hospital cuts since the Rouge Valley Health Centre. The community has held rallies and planted lawn signs demanding local Liberal

"The purpose of the consultations is to provide opportunities for broader public sector bargaining agents, employers and the government to engage in a dialogue about how we can work together to manage compensation expense in a fair manner that protects key public services ," said ...Tim Hadwen, assistant deputy minister of the Labour Relations Secretariat. (My  emphasis. -- DA) This has been the consistent argument from the provincial government -- we are freezing wages to protect public services.  However,  we have not seen too much protection of public services in the hospital sector, so far. On Tuesday, for example, the government appointed Central East LHIN approved plans to cut 182 full time hospital jobs at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. Cornwall, which announced plans to cut 30 jobs, had 22 patients in ER on Friday waiting for a hospital bed. And despite all this, we get a steady drone from the government that they are not cutting hospital services. So i

The costs of laying off the staff at Brockville General Hospital ($836,863) are not being ‘held against’ the hospital's bottom line, according to the Brockville Recorder & Times . Chief financial officer Steve Read told the paper that the hospital achieved a balanced budget in 2009-10 despite the one-time cost, based on the procedures of the Southeastern Local Health Integration Network (LHIN). In fact, according to the LHIN, Brockville General recorded a $228,524 operating surplus.   Read added that the hospital is moving forward without the burden of a budget deficit looming in the future.  No concern is reported about imaginary balanced budgets in the present.  The hospital cut 15 beds and 30 staff in March.   dallan@cupe.ca