During a joint press conference today, leaders of four major hospital unions warned that if hospital underfunding is not addressed soon, Ontario risks major cutbacks and job losses
The media release by the Ontario Hospital Coalition states, “this year and next, provincial budget levels for hospital global budgets are insufficient to meet hospital rates of inflation, population growth, and the effects of an aging society.”
The unions estimate the loss of approximately 5,000 jobs and 9 million hours of patient care to Ontario hospitals.
“Ontario is already staggering under the impact of the manufacturing job losses and the recession,” said Ken Lewenza, National President of the CAW, in a Globe and Mail interview. “In hard economic times, workers who have lost their jobs lose health care benefits as well, and the need for hospital services is all the more pressing. This is not the time for the provincial government to contemplate large-scale hospital cuts and restructuring.”
BRIEFING NOTE
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HOSPITAL CUTBACKS DUE TO UNDERFUNDING OF HOSPITAL GLOBAL BUDGETS:
PROJECTED IMPACTS ON HOSPITAL SERVICES AND THE WORK FORCEThis year and next, provincial budget levels for hospital global budgets
are insufficient to meet hospital rates of inflation, population growth, and
the effects of an aging society.– In 2008/09 provincial budget levels for hospital global budgets
increase by 2.4%. In 2009/10 the planned level drops to 2.1%. These
levels are less than what hospitals require to maintain existing
services.
– Approximately 50% of Ontario’s hospitals have been in deficit this
year. At the projected funding levels for hospital global budgets in
2009/10 approximately 70% of Ontario’s hospitals will be in deficit.At the provincial government’s planned levels of funding for hospital
global budgets for 2009/10, we project 5,000 job losses in Ontario’s hospital
sector. This includes 4,000 jobs eliminated through attrition and 1,000 more
through layoff. This is in addition to layoffs already announced to date in
2008/09.– Based on the plans that have been made public to date, job losses
will occur across all the professions and classifications – including
doctors, nurses, health professionals, support staff and
administration – affecting hospitals of all sizes (small, medium and
large) in every geographic region of the province.
– Lay offs announced already include reductions in the size of the
workforce by more than 1,000 FTE (full time equivalent) positions for
nurses, doctors, health professionals and support staff in Hamilton,
London, Ajax and Kingston alone.Hospital downsizing at current projected levels of funding for 2009/10
will result in a cutback of more than 9 million hours of patient care.– Each full time position in hospitals translates to between 1,820 (35
hours a week) and 1,950 hours of care (37.5 hours a week). This “rule
of thumb” is used across most classifications in hospitals. Thus, a
downsizing of 5,000 hospital positions translates to a loss of
between 9,100,000 hours of care up to 9,750,000 hours of patient
care. Each 1,000 positions lost translates to between 1,820,000 and
1,950,000 hours of lost patient care.Current cutbacks as a result of the planned underfunding of hospital
global budgets include serious cuts to direct patient care:– planned closure of hospitals in small and rural communities
– closure of local birthing services
– elimination of services such as physiotherapy and chiropody in some
hospitals
– potential closure of Emergency Departments in smaller communities
– decreased hospital cleanliness and increased risk of hospital
acquired infections such as C.Difficile
– increased bed occupancy, causing cancellation of surgeries,
backlogged emergency rooms and increased hospital acquired infections
– privatization of patient services
– increased user fees for patients
– significant job losses and downsizing.In December, the Ontario Health Coalition released a cross-province list
of hospital service cuts. The report can be accessed at
www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca
York Nursing News 