Sudbury hospital staff say job cuts making employees 'fearful'

Front line workers at Health Sciences North say the threat of staffing cuts is taking its toll on morale.

On Monday, the Ontario Health Coalition hosted a town hall in Sudbury to discuss hospital funding across the province.

As the hospital works to balance its budget, there have been job cuts.

Registered nurse Kelly Latimer says her department lost 75 positions this year, leaving staff to wonder what's next.

"The conversation in the coffee room isn't you know, what you did this weekend or what's happening," she said.

"It's well, who's the next person going to get cut?"

Latimer says so far, most of those cuts have come through severance packages and retirement.

Physiotherapist Michelle Beaudry says the staff who remain are focused on keeping their jobs.

"Overall, the staff are fearful," she said.

"They're feeling fearful of their jobs, but also of their workload. The demand when you're losing colleagues, losing hours."

Beaudry says the changes are affecting the care patients receive.

"It takes longer for you to get your test if there's less people doing the work," she explained.

"Which then impacts how quickly your doctor gets to see your test results."

'Challenging period'

Hospital president and CEO Dominic Giroux admits it has been challenging at Health Sciences North, noting it was facing an $11 million deficit earlier this year.

To deal with that, Giroux says 50 management and non-unionized positions were cut between January and April. Later in the year, the North East Local Health Integration Network did a review of the hospital's budget.

Since then, Giroux says 64 unionized positions have been cut since July, but adds most employees are still working at the hospital, either in different departments or in open positions.

"We do not have another round of massive cuts [coming up]," he said.

Giroux says there were cuts this year so staffing levels can remain consistent in years to come.

"I don't want our staff to be worried on a daily basis for months and years on the status of their employment," he said.

"So we've gone through a challenging period but now, from my perspective, the worst is behind us."

Giroux says the hospital is expected to have a balanced budget in April.