MEDIA ADVISORY: Statement Outside St. Michael’s Hospital

February 24th at 10:00 a.m., CUPE will make a statement at St. Michael’s Hospital in response to the planned elimination of 750 positions as provincial underfunding forces cuts

TORONTO, ON –(COMMUNITYWIRE)– Ontario’s health care crisis is deepening. On Monday, Feb. 24, at 10 a.m., hospital workers, health care advocates, and community supporters will make a statement outside St. Michael’s Hospital opposing the elimination of at least 750 positions—cuts at a hospital that is already understaffed – that will increase patient wait times and affect the quality of care.

“These job cuts will have a devastating impact,” said Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU). “This hospital plays a vital role in Toronto, and it is downsizing significantly at a time when demand for its services is surging. The Ford government’s continued underfunding is pushing Ontario’s hospitals past the breaking point, and the impact can be measured in the suffering of patients and those who love them.”

Despite rapidly growing demand, Ontario already has the fewest hospital beds per capita in the country and the lowest per capita health care funding of any province. The province has the fewest hospital staff per patient in Canada. As a result of being funded under their operating costs, Ontario hospitals have a combined deficit of over $800 million this year.

A health care system in crisis

Public opinion polls consistently rank health care as the No. 1 issue for Ontarians, yet the government continues to cut and privatize essential services.

“The hospital funding policy of the Ford government is letting down communities across the province,” said Sharon Richer, secretary-treasurer of OCHU. “250,000 people are on surgical wait lists.1,850 are on stretchers at hospitals every single day. ERs are closing routinely. Hospital staff won’t accept this for the people of Ontario.”

Since taking office, the Ford government’s increases to hospital funding have not kept pace with inflation, population growth, ageing, or the rising cost of drugs and medical technologies.

“This government can imagine funding a $100 billion tunnel that no one has asked for, but it refuses to fund the actual costs of a vital service like our hospitals,” says Hurley. “We need to talk about a plan to staff up our hospitals, to get patients on wait lists into surgeries, to get patients off hallway stretchers into beds and to meet the demands of an aging and growing population. We want to have that conversation urgently.”

Health care advocates warn that these layoffs are part of a broader push to privatize more services, creating a two-tier system where only those who can afford to pay get timely care.

Event details:

WHAT:
Statement against hospital job cuts

WHEN:
Monday, February 24, 10 a.m.

WHERE:
St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto

WHO:
Hospital workers, community members, and supporters

-30-

For media inquiries, please contact:

Robert Murdoch, CUPE Communications
613-690-5435
rmurdoch@cupe.ca