Hospital staffing shortages, burnout need to be immediately addressed: OCHU, CUPE

'We're in a crisis': CUPE CUPE and OCHU held a media conference calling on the government to address Ontario's ongoing healthcare crisis. Jenn Basa reports.

The union representing 40,000 hospital workers is once again calling on the Ontario government to take immediate action to address growing staffing issues.

On Friday, the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU) and the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) held a press conference outlining a report that outlines measures they want the Ford government to take that will help retain and recruit health care workers.

“We’re in a crisis everywhere in our hospital system,” said Doug Allan, CUPE hospital sector researcher.

“The government was elected in 2018 with very few promises, the one promise they did make was to end hallway healthcare, in fact, it's gotten worse. We are now running at 1,289 patients being treated in non-typical spaces, hallways, and operating rooms,” he added.

The union spoke to issues that have come as a result of years of understaffing, including ER closures, a growing and aging population, as well as hospital workers’ burnout.

“It doesn’t matter if you stay late, work through your lunch, don’t take breaks. It doesn’t matter, the system will not function, and you will never be able to give the quality of care that you were trained to give,” said Michael Hurley, president of OCHU and CUPE.

According to their report, our growing and aging population has expanded at a faster rate. The provincial government promised to increase the number of care hours per resident by 50 per cent by 2024/2025 and an increase in LTC beds. But with a decline in staffing in this sector there won’t be enough people to help.

In addition, the report highlights the government’s current plans will cut capacity, privatize services and enhance the current problems at hand.

“While the government touts this privatization as a cure, this will, in fact, add little capacity. The increased budget from $38.7 million to 120.7 million sounds significant but the private facilities are too small to significantly add capacity in the short or medium term,” the unions’ report reads.

A spokesperson for the minister of health responded to some of the findings expressed in the unions’ report on Friday.

“Since 2018 our government had increased the health care budget by over $16 billion, grown our health care workforce by over 63,000 nurses and 8,000 new physicians, and built 3,500 hospital beds across the province,” the statement said.

The statement to CTV News London acknowledged that there is more work that needs to be done, and added that the province has launched ‘Your Health.’

“Our government is expanding capacity across the province, 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,” the statement read.

However, the unions believe the government’s plan is inadequate because it is “falling short” by not being able to provide enough staff.

“Obviously you can’t add beds without staff so what are we going to do about the staffing crisis?” Hurley told reporters. “We call for 3,043 staff to be hired for London hospitals in a four-year period and you already have thousands of vacancies.”

Some of the unions’ proposed solutions include financial incentives, banning the use of nursing agency staff, wage increases, and recruiting healthcare workers who have left.

“Over 15,000 nurses are licenced and not practicing. Many thousands of PSW [personal support workers] and support staff have left the sector. It’s time for an aggressive plan to entice these workers back into the hospital workforce,” the report read.

Hurley and Allan said the government has yet to respond to their calls for action.