‘Devastating’ is how France Gélinas, the NDP’s Shadow Minister for Health, described the news that 40 front-line staff at North Bay Regional Hospital are being laid off due to budget constraints
Ontario’s health care system is facing renewed scrutiny as the North Bay Regional Health Centre announced layoffs affecting dozens of front-line workers. The move has drawn sharp criticism from the Ontario NDP.
Shadow Minister for Health, France Gélinas (Nickel Belt) rose in the legislature to speak to the upcoming layoffs at the North Bay Regional Health Centre.
“Speaker, so many parts of our health care system are in crisis; 2.5 million people without a family physician, a broken home care system, a mental health and addiction system overwhelmed. When parts of our health care system fail, people rely on our hospital for their health care needs.”
Gelinas says that hospitals are not allowed to have a deficit budget, but 72 per cent of hospitals in northern Ontario are facing a deficit.
“The Ontario Hospital Association says that to just maintain what we have, hospitals need a 4 per cent budget increase, but the Ford government gave them 0.7 per cent. Hospitals have no choice but to cut costs, which means cutting services and laying off staff.”
See: Hospital layoffs to impact 40 positions
And: Layoffs will have no impact on services says hospital president
And: Local nurses and CUPE criticize Fedeli over healthcare cuts
North Bay Regional Health Centre has issued layoff notices to 40 front-line health care workers, including 13 Registered Nurses, 3 Registered Practical Nurses, and one Occupational Therapist.
“Jamie West, the MPP for Sudbury, and I drove to North Bay on November 12 to hear from the hospital workers. MPP West even wore a yellow tie to fit in, in case we ever saw the member from North Bay, but he did not show,” stated Gelinas.
“What we heard was devastating; knowledgeable, caring, front-line hospital workers who have received layoff notices are worried about what will happen to their patients, who need them and depend on them. I am worried too; we know how to fix our broken health care system, and privatisation is not the solution.”
Ontario hospitals projecting deficits this year have been directed by the province to come up with three-year plans to balance their budgets by finding efficiencies.
Meanwhile, North Bay Regional Health Centre president Paul Heinrich tells BayToday that the changes to their financial approach are being made with an eye to making sure there’ll be zero impact on service.
“We’ve announced no changes that would impact service. We’ve kind of gotten to the end of the opportunities now. So, these are the changes we can make without impacting any services negatively.
“I just want to tell you at this point in history, we’ve reached out and found best practices and efficiencies, and we’re applying them. And by the way, we recognize this has a real negative impact on morale in the short term. And we don’t take any of these changes lightly. They have a negative impact on individuals, and we’re going to do our best to minimize that impact by trying to manage this primarily through attrition.”
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