Note: This page contains outdated content and may not appear correctly.
Please Click Here to find recent news, events and information from CUPE Ontario.

TORONTO, Ont. – Defenders of public health care and front line workers from as far away as Sudbury and Kingston will converge at the Rouge Valley Hospital System’s Centenary site this Monday, June 23 to draw attention to the severe erosion of hospital services being proposed for the communities of Scarborough, Ajax and Pickering.

The Centenary and Ajax-Pickering hospital sites that serve these communities are facing a level of budget cuts that will severely compromise their ability to meet the health care needs of residents in these communities.  Under proposed plans, 220 front line workers and nurses are threatened with layoffs, 36 hospital beds will be cut, bed occupancy levels will increase dramatically, and cleaning staff will be laid off.

By standing by and doing nothing, the Ontario government is also ignoring mounting evidence that links high hospital bed occupancy rates and cuts to cleaning staff with increased risk of patients dying from hospital-acquired infections.  At this event:

Date:  Monday, June 23, 2008
Time: 12:30 p.m.
Location: Centenary Hospital
2867 Ellesmere Road (Between Markham & Neilson)

Speakers will include:

• Sid Ryan, CUPE Ontario President
• Warren (Smokey) Thomas, OPSEU President

-30-

For more information, contact:

Valerie Dugale CUPE Communications  647-225-3685 
David Cox  OPSEU Communications  416-788-9197