Union expects more cuts to healthcare
[projekktor id=’22344′]
The union representing 17-hundred staff at St. Joseph’s Healthcare in Hamilton says a lack of provincial funding will result in more job losses.
Domenic DiPasquale, the President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 786 — says the looming closure of a seven-bed mental health treatment unit at St. Joseph’s Healthcare is the beginning of a series of coming cuts to hospital services. DiPasquale fears a $26-million shortfall in St. Joseph’s budget could translate into staff reductions: “It’s a lack of funding from the government that is affecting the hospitals which creates this funding shortfall and the hospitals are advocating not due to the government’s lack of funding by closing programs which we do not accept as acceptable because it’s affecting our communities, it’s affecting the care that the patients that need these services”.
Dr. David Higgins, St. Joseph’s Healthcare President: “We always strive to find efficiencies every year, essentially by look at our suppplies, use of tests and minimizing inefficient processes, making sure we’ve got appropriate contracts. And we’ve got good prices for things. Very important to work on those issues to save dollars that way.”
The union is asking the Ministry of Health to review what it calls “the huge growth in non-essential management staff at St. Joseph’s, while front line workers are being axed”.
