CUPE continues call for more hospital beds and funding
The Canadian Union of Public Employees has a few recommendations for the province after a new report project lost healthcare jobs and hospital beds locally.
CUPE says North Bay is projected to lose about 110 nurses and Personal Support Workers (PSWs), as well as 30 hospital beds by 2027-28.
This after they say the Ford government recently directed hospitals to plan for a two per cent annual increase in funding over the next three years, well short of the six per cent average since 2020.
“This is a shocking political decision to cut our hospitals when we need more staff, not fewer,” said Michael Hurley, president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU-CUPE). “Hospitals could improve access, reduce wait-times, and provide better care by attracting and retaining qualified staff. Instead, the government is choosing to starve our public hospitals with another round of reductions to staffing levels and bed capacity.”
Province-wide, CUPE says 9,000 nursing and PSW jobs could be lost along with nearly 2,400 staffed hospital beds.
The union says figures were extrapolated from an analysis by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario.
They’re calling on the province to add 6,200 staffed hospital beds, increase core hospital funding by $3.2 billion, and increase annual funding to meet inflationary costs.
Meantime, an ongoing survey conducted by CUPE at the North Bay hospital says staff have expressed concerns about worsening working conditions and the impact on patient care due to imminent layoffs.
Mike Turgeon, president of CUPE 139, says mental health claims went up by 84 per cent at the North Bay hospital between Oct. 2024 and Sept. 2025, compared to the preceding 12 months.
He attributes this to understaffing at the hospital.
Richard Coffinhttps://www.mynorthbaynow.com/Richard Coffin has been a reporter and news anchor on the radio in North Bay for over 25 years. From premiers to people in the neighbourhood, he enjoys connecting with newsmakers and writing stories that matter to area listeners on a variety of topics including healthcare, education, politics, sports and more.