ONA accuses St. Mary’s General Hospital of registered nursing cuts

The Ontario Nurses Association (ONA) alleges St. Mary’s General Hospital of cutting registered nursing positions.

The hospital told the ONA they would be cutting 11 full time and six part time registered nurse (RN) positions. The hospital currently has 50 vacant RN positions.

Angela Preocanin, the first vice president of the ONA, said the hospital is replacing RN positions with registered practical nurses (RPNs) to save money. She notes that moving RNs out of critical care areas is “concerning” because RPNs do not have the same training that RNs have.

“The RN positions that are cut have a serious impact on the quality and safety of patient care,” said Preocanin. “The RN shortage, as it worsens, the number of complications increases among patients.”

In July, an arbitrator awarded a pay raise to nurses in Ontario.

St. Mary’s has confirmed that there will be no nursing job losses and any nurses affected will be moved to different positions in the hospital. It started making changes to the new model of care back in September and others will be coming in the next few months.

In a statement to CityNews Kitchener, Brandon Douglas, the Vice President of Clinical Services at St. Mary’s General Hospital said the following:

“We are grateful to all our nursing and broader clinical teams who serve patients every day at St. Mary’s General Hospital, and proud to serve our community. There were no nursing job losses at the hospital as a result of recent changes to our model of care. Aligning St. Mary’s service delivery model with regional and provincial benchmarks was part of a broader review of all clinical services and in no way connected to Bill 124. Nurses impacted by changes to our model of are moved into new positions across the hospital, helping us to provide care and services to our community where they’re needed most.”

The statement goes on to read:

“We continue to face many challenges as a health care system related to nursing and other clinical team shortages, growing and aging populations with complex care needs, and budget constraints. Changes made at St. Mary’s to our model of care enable us to expand our teams to include a wider mix of professionals to serve our community, including Registered Nurses, Registered Practical Nurses, Personal Support Workers and Clinical Aides.  Working at their full scope of practice in a team helps our professionals deliver the right care for our patients and reduce the ongoing impact of nursing vacancies in how we meet the needs of our community.”

CityNews has also reached out to the Ministry of Health for comment.