NORTH BAY, ON – Although North Bay’s population is aging, on average, higher than some Ontario communities, Ontario’s Conservative government is planning multiple years of deep budget cuts to the North Bay Regional Health Centre (NBRHC).
“What’s coming will be bigger because the cuts compound,” says Michael Hurley, the president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU).
Hurley will hold a media conference at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, September 20, 2019, at Les Compagnons, 327 Dudley Street, North Bay.
He will release projected provincial funding shortfalls for the North Bay hospital based on Conservative fiscal plans to 2023.
The Conservative’s April 2019 budget cut hospital operating costs in real terms by
3 per cent. Those cuts build to 15 per cent by 2023.
North Bay’s senior population is projected to grow between 30 and 35 per cent in the next two decades.
The demographic indicator is that North Bay’s senior population is increasing. There will be more people using the health system – and hospitals in particular – not fewer. Although the Premier has said his Conservative government will end hallway health care within a year, North Bay’s hospital patients will face increasing overcrowding and care in hospital corridors. But it doesn’t stop there because these cuts are projected to continue to 2023.
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For more information, please contact:
Michael Hurley, President, OCHU/CUPE, 416-884-0770
Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications, 416-559-9300, [email protected]
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