Alliston hospital laying off 13 nurses due to funding cuts

A small community hospital in Alliston is about to lose 13 nurses. Stevenson Memorial Hospital, which services Alliston and other parts of Simcoe County, announced the layoffs last week citing funding cuts as the reason.

Angela Preocanin with the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) tells CityNews this was a complete surprise, and she fears it could be a sign of things to come.

“I am deeply concerned these layoffs have come in the worst crisis in nursing history,” said Preocanin. “If we can layoff at this hospital, why can’t we lay off at others and ‘we’ is the employer. Let’s be clear it’s not the union laying people off.”

According to the Ministry of Health, funding for those nurses was part of temporary re-imbursement funding that was given to hospitals to deal with increased volumes during the pandemic.

“As this re-imbursement funding, there should be zero impacts to patients, service or staff,” said the government in a statement.

The ONA said they were led to believe the funding would be a long-term investment.

“The beds that were allocated in the High Acuity Unit, a level 2 ICU, were intentionally created for their long-term redevelopment and those nurses were hired specifically for that unit, not extra nurses hired temporarily,” explained Preocanin. “The surge beds for overcapacity for COVID certainly from some temporary funding but that does not justify the layoff of 13 nurses.”

When Stevenson Memorial was built back in 1964, it only serviced 7,000 people. That number has now grown substantially to more than 40,000 patients a year.

The funding cut will impact eight ICU and overflow beds. While those units may no longer be operating at full capacity, the nurses hired to staff them were often redeployed to other sections of the hospital like the emergency department.

“It’s an expanding community so to decrease the staff available is just unfathomable,” said Preocanin.

For many months now, the health care system has been dealing with a major staffing crisis, mainly due to burnout, with some of the major hospitals in the GTA seeing a 20 per cent vacancy rate.

Ontario has been working to attract and retain nurses, adding tens of thousands have been hired in recent years.

The Ford government also recently announced it would make it easier for thousands of internationally trained nurses to practice in Ontario.

But Preocanin said it’s still not enough and she’s hoping this week’s budget announcement reflects the province’s commitment to the future of health care. “It’s a wait and see game.”

Stevenson Memorial is currently undergoing major redevelopment to better serve the growing community and the province has committed an additional $6 million to help with the cost of expansion.