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Peterborough Examiner – May 05, 2010
By ANDREA HOUSTON, EXAMINER STAFF WRITER
Staff at Peterborough Regional Health Centre plan a major campaign to protect services from Liberal budget cuts
The union representing hospital staff is planning to lobby MPP Jeff Leal and set up pickets at Peterborough Regional Health Centre to “protect the health services in this community.”
An emergency meeting was called Tuesday night to draft an action plan with input from members, said Karen Ward, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 1943, which represents about 550 members at PRHC.
The members include registered practical nurses, trades workers, nutritionists, housekeepers and surgical services staff.
About 60 members met union officials at PRHC to organize and hammer out its response to the hospital’s peer-review report released last month.
The action was voted on by the members and approved. The final document will be available Wednesday, Ward said.
In the report, the peer review calls on the hospital to cut $26.8 million from its budget in two years and recommends slashing 71 hospital beds and 151 full-time equivalent jobs.
“The staff are dealing with levels of high frustration,” she said. “We don’t know who will receive the pink slips or what’s going to happen. These are just recommendations at this time.”
Some of the anticipated actions that will be in the plan will include lobbying Leal on May 11 at 4 p.m., she said. They also plan to set up information pickets at PRHC.
CUPE may join the Ontario Nursing Association, the other union at the hospital with nursing staff, and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union to lobby Leal together, she said. The members also plan to hand out information sheets at the Peterborough Farmers’ Market on May 15 from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m.
“I’m certain the members will support this,” she said. “They’re here and ready to fight the fight.”
The overall goal of an action plan is to put pressure on Leal, she said. “He needs to stand up, do his job and protect the health services in the community,” she said. “We need to preserve these services and he needs to look at funding to ensure services are maintained. “The people of this city need to come together with their voice to make a change.”
One of her biggest fears is that PRHC becomes “redundant as a regional health centre,” she said.
“The worst case scenario is that we run the risk of losing our regional title,” she said. The recommendation that PRHC close 71 beds in the hospital means there will be a lot of empty space, she said. “There is a potential that we may turn into a longterm care facility/hospital,”
she said. “Not regional health centre, hospital. So that’s what we need to defend.”
That distinction is based on funding and funding is based on the services delivered, she said.
“If we lose the regional title, our funding will change,” she said.
Action plan
Some ideas in the action plan:
* Set up a meeting with Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal as soon as possible.
* The members requested lunchtime rallies at PRHC.
* Joining forces with the other hospital unions, including the Ontario Nursing Association and the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
* CUPE will create lawn signs, so the members can send a message to Leal and the larger community that local health care is at risk
* The members requested automated calls to keep them in the loop for upcoming protests, meetings and news updates.
