Ontario hospitals are moving ahead with staff reductions as financial pressure builds across the health-care system, with more than 70 per cent of hospitals forecasting deficits despite a $1.1-billion provincial funding increase this year.
The Ontario Hospital Association had warned earlier that hospitals needed more than twice that amount to stabilize their finances. Some hospitals are now using reserves to cover day-to-day operating costs, while others have begun cutting positions, freezing expenses and reviewing staffing models.
The latest cuts were announced by The Ottawa Hospital, which said earlier this month that it had already offered early retirement, reduced vacant roles, frozen travel and found a “more economical” benefits plan as part of its effort to manage financial challenges.
“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 last year directed hospitals to prepare three-year plans to bring their budgets back into balance. Hospitals were asked to move quickly on “low risk” savings and bring “high risk” proposals to regional and provincial planning tables.
Health Minister Sylvia Jones said the budget review process is progressing 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 also reducing nursing positions, saying the changes will bring staffing levels in line with peer hospitals. Local media reported the cuts involve more than 200 positions. A hospital spokesperson said the reductions will take place through attrition over three years.
Chatham-Kent Health Alliance has also announced staffing reductions as part of its plan to eliminate its deficit. The hospital said it will cut 49 positions, with about half of those reductions coming from its float staff pool. Most of the changes will happen by leaving vacancies unfilled.
“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.”
CKHA said the reductions would have been part of its multi-year financial recovery plan even without the province’s budget-balancing directive.
Liberal hospitals critic Lee Fairclough, a former hospital president, said Ottawa, London and Chatham are unlikely to be the only hospitals forced into difficult decisions.
“I think that the situation that we’ve been seeing building in the hospitals is now becoming the reality,” said Fairclough.
Fairclough also criticized the Ford government’s spending priorities, pointing to about $29 million spent on a private plane for Premier Doug Ford’s use. She said that amount could fund at least 300 nurses for a year.
“It’s about priorities with this government, and the system has been squeezed for far too long.”
A spokesperson for Jones said hospital changes under the three-year balanced budget plans “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.
NDP critic France Gelinas said patients will notice the loss of staff even when cuts happen through attrition.
“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 are often targeted when hospitals search for savings.
“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.”
With hospitals across Ontario facing deficits, the province’s push for balanced budgets is expected to keep pressure on hospital leaders, workers and patients in the months ahead.
