Health workers warned Tuesday that the loss of hundreds of nursing and health-worker jobs at The Ottawa Hospital will be felt by patients through longer waits and reduced quality of care. During a noisy rally outside the hospital's Civic campus, union representatives and supporters voiced their concerns about the impact of the cuts.
The Ottawa Hospital announced in April that it would cut three per cent of its workforce — approximately 400 jobs — to address financial challenges in the health-care sector. The majority of those positions are nurses, including about 200 registered nurses, and other frontline health workers.
On May 5, dozens of health workers, union representatives, and supporters gathered in front of the Civic campus to protest the cuts, arguing that hospitals are already struggling to meet demands. Their messages were directed at the provincial government.
“Health-care workers are being told to do more with less,” said Rob Gauthier, president of CUPE 4000, which represents more than 4,000 workers at The Ottawa Hospital, including registered practical nurses and personal support workers. “As you can imagine, this is not a recipe for quality of care. It is absurd to believe there won’t be consequences for patients.”
Gauthier warned that the cuts could increase the risk of medical errors, undermine patient health, and drive workers away from hospitals, perpetuating a cycle of understaffing. “It’s as if they want the system to fail,” he said of the provincial government, which funds hospitals. He and others criticized the growth of for-profit health care at a time when public hospitals are financially strained.
The Ottawa Hospital is one of several hospitals across Ontario that have announced staff cuts in recent months, as indebted hospitals are being told to balance their budgets. The Ontario government committed an additional $1.1 billion in funding to hospitals in its most recent budget, but the Ontario Hospital Association has said that is not enough to cover growing expenses, resulting in a funding gap that forces hospitals to find efficiencies, including cutting staff.
Amy Roberts, president of the Ontario Nurses Association Local 83, which represents nurses at The Ottawa Hospital, said the nursing cuts include teams sent to help areas of the hospital experiencing surges in patients or needing additional support. This includes nurses who worked in the overflow space at the General hospital, known as the “garage.” Roberts said the hospital is closing that overflow space, created in a former ambulance bay, as part of the cuts. The hospital did not immediately respond to a question about that.
Roberts noted that these cuts come at a time when patients are still being treated in hallways. “We know hospitals need those flexible staffing options to deal with overcrowding and to prevent burnout,” she said.
Ontario has the lowest nurse-to-population ratio in the country and the lowest per-capita hospital funding, she added. “Why are we targeting hospital staff to make up for that underfunding during a time when more funding is needed? Hospitals are cutting back. The Ford government is starving our public hospital system of funds at the expense of our patients; they are targeting health-care professionals on the front lines when the needs are greater than ever.”
