Rouge Valley Hospital System begins 'road to recovery'
May 16, 2008 - 03:43
By Kristen Calis
AJAX -- Nurses at the Rouge Valley Hospital System received two things from the hospital during Nurses Week: stress balls and layoff notices.
"That is the most despicable, disgusting thing that they could do in the middle of Nurses Week," said Carol Oates, Ontario Nurses Association bargaining unit president for RVHS.
Union representatives were informed Thursday of layoff notices for 47 nurses between the two hospitals (40 full-time and seven part-time). RVHS is faced with a long-term debt and capital deficiencies of $78 million, and in order to relieve the debt, the hospital announced plans to cut 220 jobs (60 at Rouge Valley Ajax and Pickering hospital) and consolidate the mental health unit by moving RVAP's mental health beds to Rouge Valley Centenary hospital in Scarborough. The announcement came after the Ontario Public Service Employees Union withdrew its motion for an injunction when the hospital agreed to keep all mental health services at RVAP until after a judicial review is complete.
Rik Ganderton, RVHS president and CEO, explained of the 40 positions cut, 13 are full-time and seven are part-time at RVAP. Twelve full-time and six part-time registered nurses will leave RVAP's mental health unit.
"I'll tell you (the mental health nurses) are very angry," Ms. Oates said.
Mr. Ganderton said, in a press release, it's been a very difficult time for all staff.
"We all know that we had to take these difficult actions to improve our hospital system," he said. "We are now into implementation and the transformation of RVHS into a higher performing, higher quality hospital."
Mr. Ganderton noted the mental health jobs will be fully replaced at Centenary and "we want every mental health nurse to apply for those jobs."
Voluntary packages, early retirement, attrition and vacancies will be offered, but Ms. Oates said only about half a dozen would qualify for a retirement package.
She's also worried about maintaining the same quality of care with the changes.
"They expect us to do the same volume with less beds and less nurses," she said.
Mr. Ganderton explained, in an interview, RVHS will maintain the same service volumes. The RVHS has been working with too many resources than it needs to deliver proper care, which was outlined in a December peer review report, he said. Reducing the resources will help RVHS benchmark itself against other hospitals, he said.
"We've actually signed the accountability agreement with the LHIN (Central East Local Health Integration Network), which has those volume commitments," he said.
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