North Bay hospital axes 158 full-time jobs to fight $14M deficit

The North Bay Regional Health Centre is making some big staffing cuts to avoid a projected $14 million deficit — and that has some asking what will happen to patient care. 

Staff and volunteers were told yesterday about the 158 full-time job losses slated for the hospital. 

• Freezing hospital budgets is like cutting services: Ontario Coalition of Hospital Unions

Hospital president Paul Heinrich said thinning out the ranks will mean greater efficiency. 

"It's going to mean improved patient care in many respects. What we're doing is similar to other organizations in the province, and they're able to get good  outcomes with less expenditure than us, and that's the bar that we're going to achieve as well," he said. 

However, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli is pointing to these job cuts as just the latest blow to North Bay's health care services — and he's laying the blame directly at the feet of the Liberal government. 

"That's in addition to the 197 front-line health care workers that were fired in the last couple of years," he said in an interview on Morning North.

"Also, we've got 60 hospital beds that have been now closed in the city of North Bay [in the last few years], so it's not very nice to be back [at Queen's Park] and not get any answers." 

The union representing employees said in a press release that North Bay's hospital "is being eviscerated and patient care will suffer dramatically." 

The release states: "The province has frozen hospital funding for the last four years, which has cut their budgets in real terms by over 20 per cent. To deal with the significant provincial underfunding, NBRHC has slashed nearly $50 million over the last 3 years, resulting in cuts to nursing, emergency, cleaning, portering, cataract surgery, psychiatric care and forensic units." 

The hospital says it will work to minimize the impact on staff and explore staff attrition options.