RNs mount campaign to protest 169 job cuts at Windsor Regional

http://windsorstar.com/news/local-news/rns-mount-campaign-to-protest-169-job-cuts-at-windsor-regional

Facing an 11 per cent slash in their numbers at Windsor Regional Hospital, registered nurses are embarking on a campaign to protest hospital funding cuts they say are bad for the people of Windsor and Essex County.
“If the government really cared about our health, they wouldn’t be doing this,” says Sue Sommerdyk, the Ontario Nurses’ Association local president who represents 1,550 RNs at Windsor Regional’s two locations. She said ONA has launched a petition and a letter writing campaign, and is planning information pickets to protest the government cuts.
The hospital talked three weeks ago about a total of 166 full-time-equivalent (FTE) jobs being cut from its 3,800-person workforce to cope with a $20-million budget shortfall, but added that it was hiring 80 registered practical nurse FTEs to replace 80 RN FTEs. But the impact on RNs amounts to 169 fewer full- and part-time RNs, Sommerdyk said Monday.
She noted that the normal attrition rate at the hospital — people who retire or quit in a year — is five per cent.
“I have 1,550 members, this is more than 10 per cent of my members, so I’m not really sure the attrition rate will actually work here,” Sommerdyk said.
She said the cuts are going to be felt throughout the hospital, citing hospital intentions to close or downsize its diabetes clinic, an obstetrician clinic and its HIV clinic.
“All of them, I guess it’s your interpretation what the impact’s going to be on the community,”  Sommerdyk said.
Hospital CEO David Musyj said that the hospital has to look at all the outpatient clinics it offers because the new hospital funding formula doesn’t provide proper funds for them. The diabetes clinic will be kept open for only a small percentage of patients with the most severe problems, and the rest will have to go to clinics in the community — Musyj said there are seven diabetes clinics in Windsor and the county — offering the same service.
The obstetrics clinic is a service provided so that obstetricians on call in the hospital can see their office patients at the hospital. Only four of the hospital’s 12 OBGYNs use the service, Musyj said. He said the OB triage — where pregnant women can bypass the emergency and go straight to the obstetrics department for medical help — will continue.
The HIV clinic — located in a separate building on the Met property — will probably have its pharmacy merged with the cancer centre pharmacy and its hours will be reduced as staff retire, he said.
Musyj said that due to the lack of funding, the hospital needs to get out of areas where patients can get the same service outside the hospital or at their doctor’s office.
Other hospitals in the province are in the same boat. London Health Sciences announced last week it would replace its cleaning staff with lower-paid contract workers and Bluewater Health in Sarnia announced it would be cutting 12 staff.
He said it’s too early to tell whether all the job cuts announced at Windsor Regional will be achieved through attrition. While natural attrition is five per cent a year, he said other factors could raise that number, including an early retirement package that provides nine months of pay and the lure of Michigan hospitals and their high-value U.S. paycheques. Maternal and parental leaves can also offset the job losses, he said.
“So there are a lot of factors,” Musyj said. “We’re not in any way guaranteeing it, but we’ve got to let it play out and see what happens.”