Reduce jobs embrace cleansing workers, working room assistants, and occupational therapists
The sound of automobiles honking and Twisted Sister’s 1984 monitor We’re Not Gonna Take It was heard on Lakeshore Street behind Joseph Brant Hospital on Wednesday afternoon, as dozens of CUPE members protested 10 job cuts on the hospital.
The ten jobs which are being misplaced are seven housekeepers, an working room assistant, and an occupational therapist – which CUPE says are all very important to affected person wellbeing.
“Right now we’re being stretched beyond our means, and these cuts are going to stretch us even further,” Jacqui Curtis, president of Native 1065 and a registered sensible nurse at Joseph Brant mentioned. “There’s not as many resources, but we’re expected to do the same things for our patients. We’re jeopardizing patient safety to get our balanced budget.”
Curtis added there are an increasing number of non-union positions being added throughout the hospital, not the kinds of positions on the entrance strains that want extra numbers.
The hospital, which has greater than 2,000 full and part-time workers, in addition to volunteers, suggests the minimize positions is not going to affect affected person care.
“We want to assure the Burlington community that these changes have had no impact on patient care or the delivery of healthcare services at Joseph Brant Hospital. Patient care remains our top priority” a consultant from JBH wrote in an announcement to BurlingtonToday. “To be clear, no employees have lost their jobs. The affected positions were vacant and were eliminated as part of a larger strategic optimization effort to improve efficiency. Workloads and schedules were rebalanced, and part-time positions were created to increase operational flexibility and to better meet patient needs.”
Protesters outdoors of the hospital chanted and held indicators, as audio system from CUPE spoke right into a microphone with hopes these contained in the hospital may hear them.
Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, added the positions which are being minimize are – opposite to what the hospital suggests – important.
“Hospitals in Ontario have a $2 billion collective deficit problem, and you are seeing it play out at Joe Brant with the elimination of cleaning staff, in the operating room, and occupational therapists,” Hurley mentioned. “Well, you would think there was not demand for this service, but in fact in Ontario there were 250,000 people waiting to get into hospitals like this one for surgeries, and 2,500 of them died on the wait lists.”
Hurley added the variety of folks ready for beds has elevated from 850 in 2018 to round 2,000 as we speak.
The protest comes solely days after Ontario Premier Doug Ford introduced a brand new psychological well being unit might be added to Joseph Brant within the subsequent few years. Within the crowd, protesters shouted that the hospital doesn’t look after its personal staff’ psychological well being.
“Frontline workers are critical to the functioning of a hospital, but it seems that this government has it in for us,” Curtis wrote in a press launch. “You’d think the government would be investing in improving our working conditions and providing us resources to best serve patients. Instead, they cut our salaries with Bill 124 and demand that we do more and more with less – which is why we have a staffing crisis. These new cuts will drive more staff to leave and force patients to wait and wait.”
