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Bruyère Health is laying off 55 frontline staff, according to the union representing nurses and personal support workers at the organization.
Positions slated for the chopping block include 46 personal support workers and nine nurses, according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
Douglas Currier, a registered practical nurse and president of CUPE 4540, said he was shocked to hear about the layoffs.
“These cuts are substantial and will directly impact our ability to deliver safe, timely care,” Currier told members of the media at a press conference on Monday. “It is impossible to remove this many frontline staff with no impact.”
In an email to CBC News, Bruyère Health confirmed that 55 positions are going through a “redeployment process,” adding that 12 of these positions are vacant.
“Our priority is our people and those we are for. We’re working together to minimize the impact on our teams and patient care,” the organization wrote.
CUPE Local 4540 President Douglas Currier, middle, says staff at the hospital are exhausted. (Radio-Canada)
The cuts to Bruyère Health’s frontline staff come as Ontario hospitals struggling with deficits are being tasked with balancing their budgets within three years. According to the Ontario Hospital Association, the province’s hospitals are facing a “deepening structural deficit.”
Ontarians are getting older and their medical needs are more complex, which is part of why costs in the sector are rising at a rate of six per cent a year, according to Anthony Dale, the association’s president and chief executive officer.
That’s left hospitals dipping into their financial reserves to fund everyday operations.
In an interview with CBC’s Ottawa Morning, Currier said he does not blame Bruyère Health for the decision, but rather believes it has been put in a position “where they feel they have very little option because of the Ford government.”
LISTEN | More from Currier’s interview:
Ottawa Morning9:30Union concerned over possible layoffs at Bruyère Health
Douglas Currier, the president of the CUPE union local at Bruyère Health, talks about the proposed cuts to fifty-five healthcare positions.Community of care at a ‘breaking point’
Even before learning about the cuts, Currier said members had shared they were feeling exhausted and overwhelmed and finding it difficult to complete their workload at the end of their shifts.
According to a recent union survey, 67 per cent of Bruyère Health staff said they would work through their breaks due to understaffing.
Now, I walk down the hallway of the hospital where I worked for 30 years and I just see exhaustion.”- Douglas Currier, president of CUPE 4540
Currier, who has worked as a nurse for over 30 years, said he’s never seen the current level of exhaustion among staff.
The situation on the ground now is worse than what he saw during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said.
“During the pandemic, we had a sense of purpose like we have never had before…. Healthcare staff now feel that they’re a budget-line item.”
With files from Frédéric Pepin and CBC’s Ottawa Morning