Hamilton hospitals short 3,348 staff and 473 beds, report says
CBC
Hamilton's hospitals need 3,348 new staff members and 473 more beds, according to a new report by the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
OCHU, a division of CUPE that represents around 34,000 hospital employees, released a report Thursday which outlines the changes Ontario's hospitals need to "meaningfully address patient needs over the next four years."
OCHU said the province needs to increase staffing levels and bed capacity in its hospitals by 22 per cent to meet patient needs.
Currently staffing and capacity is on track to increase by less than one percent per year, the group said.
"In a workforce of about 250,000 people, you've got a sixth of the jobs vacant," said OCHU president, Michael Hurley.
Repressed wage increases, low recruitment and a high turnover rate among hospital staff are "morale-destroying for the health-care workforce," Hurley added.
Hurley said Hamilton is experiencing shortages in all medical professions and levels, and says the provincial government is not doing enough to address this.
Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for Ontario's minister of health, Sylvia Jones, told CBC Hamilton in an email the province is "getting shovels in the ground for 50 hospital developments over 10 years that will add over 3,000 beds, to connect Ontarians to the care they need now and into the future."
She said the province has invested $20 million in Hamilton Health Sciences to add 100 new beds.
While Hurley agreed infrastructure projects are important, he said they do not help with staffing shortages.
"They don't come through on plans to staff up the hospitals, not just build them, and ensure that they have enough beds to meet an aging and growing population," he said.
Jensen said the province has added 63,000 nurses and 8,000 new physicians to Ontario's healthcare system, but Hurley said that doesn't make up for the number of staff leaving the system.
"We have 40,000 vacant positions and a turnover rate of about 15 per cent a year," Hurley told CBC Hamilton in a phone interview on Thursday.
"People are leaving the Ontario hospital system in droves."
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