Ontario hospitals announce job cuts as nearly three-quarters try to climb out of financial holes

Several Ontario hospitals have announced job cuts in recent months as they try to climb out of financial holes, a situation critics say will likely keep repeating.

While the government gave hospitals a $1.1-billion funding boost this year, the Ontario Hospital Association had said the need was more than double that. More than 70 per cent of hospitals are forecasting deficits and some are using their reserves to fund operating expenses.

The most recent announcement of cuts came earlier this month from The Ottawa Hospital, which said that in order to address financial challenges it has already offered early retirement, cut vacant positions, frozen travel and found a “more economical” benefits plan.

“Despite all of this, regrettably there will still be some reductions to job positions in the coming months,” the hospital wrote in a statement.

“These reductions amount to three per cent of our overall workforce, however through vacancy management and early retirement options, we will work to limit any involuntary departures.”

The Ministry of Health tasked hospitals last year with creating three-year plans to balance their budgets. Any “low risk” ways to find savings were to be implemented immediately, and “high risk” proposals were to be discussed at regional and provincial planning tables.

‘Change is always hard,’ health minister says

Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the budget balancing exercise has been going well.

“Change is always hard,” she said in a recent interview.

“But when I look at some of the leadership that has come out of organizations like Ottawa, like London, where they are able to clearly articulate the reason for the change, the why we are doing it. As long as the focus is on front-line patient care, I think that we are going in the right direction.”

London Health Sciences Centre is cutting nursing positions in order, it says, to align staffing levels with the hospital’s peers. Local media put the cuts at more than 200 positions, and a spokesperson for the hospital says that will happen through attrition over three years.

Chatham-Kent Health Alliance is working to eliminate its deficit and recently announced it will cut 49 positions, half of which will come from reducing the size of its pool of float staff.

It will largely be done through not filling vacancies.

“Like many Ontario hospitals, CKHA is facing financial and operational pressures resulting from rising costs, an aging population, increasing complexity of care, as well as aging infrastructure and equipment,” the hospital wrote in a statement.

“Hospitals across the province faced with similar pressures are also expecting deficits and eroding working capital. Within this context, hospitals are planning for reduced expenditures, while ensuring safe, high-quality care.”

The CKHA reductions would have happened amid its multi-year financial recovery plan whether the government ordered the budget balancing exercise or not, the hospital said.

Hospitals ‘squeezed far too long,’ Liberal critic says

Ottawa, London and Chatham will not be alone in having to make those tough decisions, said Liberal hospitals critic Lee Fairclough.

“I think that the situation that we’ve been seeing building in the hospitals is now becoming the reality,” said Fairclough, a former hospital president.

The government spent about $29 million on a private plane for Premier Doug Ford’s use, Fairclough noted, which could pay a year’s salary for at least 300 nurses.

“It’s about priorities with this government, and the system has been squeezed for far too long.”

A spokesperson for Jones said the changes hospitals are making under the three-year balanced budget plan “are not expected to impact patient care or access to services.”

“As we modernize and strengthen hospital care, hospitals must plan for long-term stability so people across Ontario can continue to access high-quality care close to home for years to come,” Ema Popovic wrote.

Job loss through attrition affects care, NDP critic says

NDP critic France Gelinas said that even when job losses happen solely through attrition, patients will still feel the impacts.

“Every time you lose a nurse, a physiotherapist, an occupational therapist, a (personal support worker) … a lab tech — every time you lose a person, it affects care,” she said.

Ontario Nurses’ Association president Erin Ariss said nurses bear the brunt of hospital job cuts.

“When (hospitals) are looking for further efficiencies, they will look to nurses to eliminate a liability, that’s what they feel it is,” she said.

“They’re treating nurses as a commodity, rather than a skilled professional that provides care to the most complex patients in Ontario.”