What to know
- Healthcare workers in Durham Region say conditions at Lakeridge are “chaotic”.
- Health—driven by staffing shortages and funding cuts—are worsening patient care.
- Nurses report increased workloads, including taking on non-nursing duties after dietary staff cuts, which they say takes time away from critical patient care.
- Patient volumes are rising while staffing levels drop, leading to higher nurse-to-patient ratios and more patients being treated in hallways.
- Workers are calling on the province to boost funding and ensure it goes directly to frontline care, warning current conditions are unsafe.
Healthcare workers in Durham Region are speaking out against “chaotic” working conditions, including staffing shortages and monetary cuts, as they call on the province to boost funding.
Healthcare workers at Lakeridge Health sites, which operate several hospitals and emergency departments across Durham Region, have sounded the alarm on a variety of issues, including staffing shortages and severe funding cuts.
Pam Parks, a registered practical nurse and president of CUPE 6364, which represents about 3,500 workers at the site, told Now Toronto that working conditions have always been a slippery slope but have worsened due to “budget restraints,” which have led to understaffing.
She says the boiling point recently occurred when three dietary positions, roles meant to deliver food to patients, were cut. She says the remaining dietary staff were stripped of some duties, with nurses now being expected to take over.
“The nurses are going to be the ones to go to the cart, pick the trays and go deliver it into the rooms, to the patients,” she said.
She says this interferes with their ability to perform their own duties, such as administering medication and tending to patients during deliveries, especially those with complex needs like diabetes. While grabbing food trays may only take a few minutes, she says those minutes are crucial.
“That two minute window, five minute window could mean life and death,” she said. “You’re cutting dietary staff, you’re adding the workload onto the nurses, and that is not feasible.”
Adding to the chaotic workflow is the uptick in patients receiving care in hallways due to the hospital operating over capacity.
“In the hallway on a hard stretcher, no bathroom, no running water, no oxygen tank, unless you get a portable one that you hope doesn’t run out and it is just unsafe. But they do not care,” she said.
As the number of patients grows, the number of staff shrinks, with nurses in particular now facing higher nurse-to-patient ratios than in previous years.
Parks says that before COVID, she would comfortably care for no more than five patients. Now, nurses are assigned seven or eight patients, depending on where and when they work.
“If you’re on night shift, your ratio could be in a hospital, one to 12 or 13,” she said.
Workers call for provincial funding
Healthcare workers protested outside Lakeridge Hospital in Oshawa on April 23 in response to the working conditions.
Parks says they are demanding more funding from the province to address the issues. However, she adds that not only does healthcare need more funding, but it also needs to go directly to the front lines, rather than hiring more managers.
“Even if they announce tomorrow that they’re giving funds to the employer, what’s going to happen is we will not see that in their front line. There will be more management,” she said.
She says she hopes Lakeridge takes action.
“Their workers deserve better. This workload, working with less staff and more patients, has to stop, because there’s only so much an individual can do,” she said.
Now Toronto reached out to Lakeridge Health for comment but did not receive a response in time for publication.
