The peer review is done, but the details around the 6 per cent in cuts to the Perth and Smiths Falls District Hospital are still somewhat sketchy. The cuts are to deal with a $2.6 million operating deficit at the hospital.
Among the many cuts will be closure of 12 beds at the hospital.
The unions that represent employees at the hospital have been given some idea of the impact after receiving notice of layoffs and reductions in hours. For OPSEU, the biggest reduction is in physiotherapy – the equivalent of more than three full-time positions is being lost. In addition OPSEU is losing one full-time professional in diagnostic imaging and scaling back hours for a dietitian, health records and a staff member assigned to assist victims of sexual assault and violence.
Other positions that are either being lost or reduced include nurses in the operating room, obstetrics, emergency room, and on the medical/surgical floor. Community members will find it more difficult to get through to the hospital switchboard, with hours scaled back, along with other impacts on purchasing, housekeeping, food services, rehab, patient registration, discharge and finance.
OPSEU Diablogue 