Cutting bone

More jobs to be eliminated at PECMH

Five people working at Prince Edward County Memorial Hospital (PECMH) will see their positions eliminated in April. The cuts, announced late last week, include two nurses (one full-time team leader and another part-time nurse) as well as a physiotherapist and a hospitality service worker. A part-time patient registration clerk position will also be eliminated, as will a vacant registered practical nurse position. These cuts, subject to board approval, expected in January, will be implemented in April.

QHC administrators say staffing cuts are needed as part of its effort to reduce expenses by $11.5 million in order to balance its budget. Each year, it seems, the hospital struggles to keep expenses in balance with its revenue. But recent changes to the formula driving the amount QHC receives each year from the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care have made this challenge more acute, and possibly chronic.

The province’s current funding formula rewards efficient hospitals with more money and penalizes laggards with less. In this Darwinian landscape, QHC has failed to match the efficiency of larger urban hospitals. Further, it must now work doubly hard to catch up, or risk falling further behind.

Altogether, QHC expects 82 fewer positions in April.

“These changes are extremely difficult for everyone at QHC, and we are focused on supporting our staff through this stressful process,” says Mary Clare Egberts, president and CEO, QHC. “As always, our goal is to manage this as much as possible through attrition, retirements and offering different positions where possible so that we can minimize the number of valued staff who need to leave QHC involuntarily.”

But people will go out the door. QHC will get smaller. Remaining staff will be asked to do more. Morale can be expected to decline—making efficiency targets harder to reach.

At PECMH, staffing cuts, though nominally a smaller portion of the total, will likely be felt more dramatically. After years of cuts, Picton hospital soldiers on with just 27 full- and part-time nurses. Losing two of these nurses and an RPN position means the elimination of a 10th of its nursing capacity from an already depleted corps.

Mayor Robert Quaiff feels blindsided by the announcement of more cuts to PECMH.

“I’m shocked and dismayed with this announcement,” says Quaiff, “as previous communication [with QHC] said no cuts were coming to the Picton site.”

Quaiff registered his unhappiness with both Egberts and MPP Todd Smith last week. He is also looking to speak with health minister Eric Hoskins.

Former PECMH staffer and hospital advocate Fran Renoy worries about the steady decline to services, staff and resources.

“With the loss of three nursing positions, PECMH is entering an operational mode that could quite possibly prove detrimental to the patients and staff,” cautions Renoy in a letter to the editor.

No one is suggesting these latest cuts will be the last at the hospital corporation. Unless QHC dramatically improves efficiency next year and the year after, it will continue to face similar revenue shortfalls.