On the eve of the provincial election, a line-up of hospital stretchers outside Bracebridge Hospital planned for this afternoon will symbolize the crisis in Ontario’s health care, says the union.
According to a media release issued today by CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE), there are:
- 1,860 people on stretchers in hospital hallways, up from 826 in June 2018 when the Premier promised to end hallway medicine.
- 2.5 million citizens without a family doctor
- Palliative home care patients dying without painkillers and medical supplies
- 250,000 people waiting for surgeries
- Nearly 50,000 people waiting for long-term care
- Constant ER closures in small towns
“The crisis in health care affects almost every family,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). “The entire health care sector is staggering. There is no end to the staffing shortages; ER closures, waits for surgeries or for long-term care beds or for a family doctor or for appropriate home care services. We hope to help ensure that this election focuses on solutions to this crisis.”
In 2023, Muskoka Algonquin Health Care (MAHC) operated at 90.7% capacity, well above the 85 per cent recommended maximum bed occupancy level. According to analysis by OCHU-CUPE, MAHC must add 19 beds to achieve safe occupancy levels.
The latest data for MAHC shows that ER patients, on average, wait 23.7 hours, with only 23% of them admitted within the target time of eight hours.
The union points out that per-person hospital funding in Ontario is the lowest in Canada. With Ontario having the fewest beds and hospital staff to population, Hurley says it is not surprising to witness a record increase in hospital overcrowding.
“There were 250,000 people on wait lists for surgeries last year” Hurley said. “2,000 are on stretchers today, begging for a bed. Palliative patients die at home without painkillers. As a province, we must do so much better for our citizens. The next government must implemen real solutions.”
The union is calling on the province to:
- Improve hospital capacity to match the needs of an ageing and growing population, by adding staffed hospital beds.
- Address the staffing crisis by improving compensation and working conditions, and providing incentives such as free tuition to students in nursing and PSW programs
- End private sector delivery of acute, long-term care and community health services
- Ban agency nurses to reduce staffing costs, and invest that money in improving compensation and working conditions for in-house workers
- Improving staffing in LTC to meet the 4-hours of daily care benchmark and expand capacity to reduce waitlists
- End contracting out of services across health care, and run LTC and home care on a public, not-for-profit basis
- Expand the use of nurse practitioners to lead primary care clinics
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