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Sturgeon Falls, Ontario – Today, at a press conference in the Sturgeon Falls Complex, Michael Hurley, President of the Ontario Coalition of Hospital Unions (OCHU CUPE) addressed the issue of the infections crisis in ontario hospitals and offered concrete solutions to this major public health problem.
He revealed that the West Nipissing General Hospital has experienced significant outbreaks of MRSA (a dangerous and very resistant bacteria) and the Norwalk virus. Both staff and patients have suffered needlessly from these diseases because of years of neglect of cleaning services on the part of the hospital administration. West Nipissing General has adopted the dangerous practice of contracting out and reducing cleaning services, increasing the risk of infection dramatically.
Unfortunately, the province does not require that each hospital make public the facts about the infection problems they experience. This is why it is now up to the staff, in some hospitals, to reveal that information to the public.
Mr. Hurley pointed out that simple solutions would improve the situation and save both lots of money and lives. First, the hospital needs to end its contracting out policy for cleaning services. Then it needs to hire more cleaning staff in order to allow for a better standard of cleanliness and hygiene to be maintained.
He called on the provincial government to take its responsibility in this crisis by making it mandatory that local hospitals report on these situations, and by increasing core funding for ontario hospitals by much more than the 2.4% recently announced, which maintains many hospitals in deficit of facing hard budgetary dilemmas.
OCHU is launching a hotline number allowing residents of Sturgeon Falls and North Bay to share their experiences and express their concerns about these infections. This number is 1-888-599-0750
Hospital-acquired infections cause approximately 2000 deaths every year in Ontario, and make many more people very sick. This can be prevented by putting in place measures costing a lot less than the treatment of the infections.
The community of the Sturgeon Falls area is invited to discuss this issue at a public meeting on Monday, May 12 at 7:00 pm, in the Marcel Noel Community Hall of the Sturgeon Falls complex.
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For more information, contact:
Benoit Renaud, CUPE communications
Cell: 613-818-0077
[email protected]
Michael Hurley, President, OCHU
W: 416-599-0770 x.21
Cell: 416-884-0770
[email protected]
