The Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario will cut 50 nursing positions in an effort to balance their books.
According to the Ontario Nurses’ Association, the staffing reduction will result in the loss of 90,000 nursing hours per year.
“The community should be outraged about these cuts. Everyone will need the skilled care of an RN someday, and for CHEO patients, the loss of that care will have a negative impact,” said ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud in a media release.
Last week CHEO announced it would be cutting staff by 2-3% to compensate for a funding shortfall of more than $6 million in its 2015/2016 operating budget. At the time, CHEO said the majority of positions would be eliminated through attrition, voluntary retirement and reassignment.
The pediatric hospital says the cuts come as a direct result of reduced funding from the provincial government and a new requirement for the hospital to balance its budget. CHEO is currently looking at a $6.7 million deficit.
The hospital will also be implementing more than 100 initiatives aimed at reducing costs, more than half of which CHEO says are in non-clinical areas.
The Ontario Nurses Association is encouraging the community to protest the cuts, saying they will have a negative impact on patient care.
