A health care association was “flabbergasted” to learn that St. Joseph’s Health Care London was laying off 85 registered nurses, a spokesperson said Monday.
In an announcement last week, the hospital said cuts included 60 full time and 25 part time positions for registered nurses (RNs) and many frontline workers would be reassigned due to a $4.7 million deficit.
The decision, amid a demand for mental health support in London, could mean St. Joseph’s will also no longer be a part of the city’s Community Outreach and Support Team (COAST), said John Lowe, region five vice president of the Ontario Nurses Association (ONA). COAST is a service that includes RNs working with the London Police Service to provide on-scene community outreach to those in need.
“We are flabbergasted! No other province is laying off registered nurses, and we don’t understand why the government thinks it’s a safe thing to do,” said Lowe. “This will not bring good outcomes for the patients that rely on these services.”
Peggy Sattler, the provincial NDP for London-West, agreed.
“It is going to have an impact on patient care no matter how you try to justify it, the provincial government needs to be held accountable for this,” said the MPP.
The hospital said job changes are part of restructing and did not confirm specific layoff details.
“We’re creating 82 new full-time and 24 part-time direct care roles, including RPN’s, personal support workers (PSW’s), occupational therapy/physiotherapy assistants, social service workers and therapeutic recreation assistants and removing 83 full-time and 31 part-time registered nurse roles,” said the hospital in its news release Thursday.
As the full scale of the layoffs has yet to be released, hospital staff wait in hopes of a change of course.
