What to know
- Health-care workers rallied outside Premier Doug Ford’s Etobicoke office Monday to protest the province’s plan to cut hospital funding by 10 per cent over three years.
- CUPE says the reductions come as surgical wait lists surpass 200,000 people and more than 2,000 patients remain on stretchers awaiting beds.
- Union leaders warn the funding plan could result in the loss of roughly 2,450 hospital beds and 9,000 nursing and PSW positions across Ontario.
- Frontline staff say chronic underfunding is driving burnout, workplace violence and hallway care, with some patients treated in corridors and waiting room chairs.
Health care workers gathered outside of Premier Doug Ford’s office in Etobicoke Monday morning, protesting what they describe as deep and damaging funding cuts to Ontario’s hospital system.
The rally, organized by the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) and Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU), comes in response to the provincial government’s plan, which includes cutting hospital funding by 10 per cent over the next three years.
CUPE says the consequences of the cutbacks are already being felt across the province. Hospitals in the Greater Toronto Area, North Bay, Hamilton, Ottawa, and Niagara have seen hundreds of positions eliminated, affecting frontline staff and patient care.
“[Ford] promised to end hallway medicine,” OCHU President Michael Hurley said to Now Toronto. “He promised to get patients off stretchers. At that time, there were 850 people on stretchers. Now there’s over 2,000. He also promised to clear the surgical waiting lists. At that time, there were 70,000 people on those lists. Now there’s over 200,000.”
Hurley described the current state of the province’s health care system as “stressed,” and urged that it will only get worse without intervention.
“We’ve got an aging population and a growing population, and they’re putting real demands on the Ontario health care system… this problem will intensify over the next 20 years,” he said.
“This government, which is already operating with the least number of hospital staff and beds of anywhere in Canada, has plans to cut bed capacity by 10 per cent and staffing by 10 per cent, and we’re here today to say ‘No, not on our watch as hospital workers. We’re not going to let that happen to the public.’”
CUPE says that, according to projections from the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario, under current funding plans, the province could lose approximately 2,450 hospital beds and 9,000 nursing and personal support worker (PSW) positions over the next several years.
Angela Hodgson, a nurse with 20 years of experience, said the strain on the system is visible every day on hospital floors.
“I see the impacts that not having appropriate funding in the hospital system has on not only the staff, but the patients and the families,” Hodgson said at the rally. “We’ve seen an increase in violence. We’ve seen an increase in burnout for staff. We’ve seen a huge exodus of staffing.”
Hodgson urged Ford to make hospital funding a priority, arguing that redirecting resources from other sectors is necessary to stabilize the healthcare system and ensure Ontarians receive timely, appropriate care.
President of CUPE 7800 Jillian Watt, described Ontario’s health care system as being “dismantled” by chronic underfunding and what she characterized as a growing push toward privatization.
“Our members don’t get into health care for the money. They get into it because they care, they’re compassionate, and they want to help people. And when their hands are tied to a point where they can’t even provide that part of the care, it’s sad,” Watt shared with Now Toronto.
She described seeing an elderly woman forced to receive an overnight underwear change on a stretcher in a public hallway, calling it a “heartbreaking” example of how conditions have become. Watt said this level of care now happens daily, with some patients even receiving treatment while seated in waiting room chairs due to a lack of available beds.
“[Health care workers] are exhausted,” she said. “They’re tired. They’re overworked. I know our hospital paid $20 million in overtime last year. At the end of the day, it’s about the care that they want to provide patients and they can’t.
Watt called on both Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones to visit hospitals to see the conditions firsthand and to provide a transparent breakdown of how healthcare dollars are being allocated.
“I want [them] to actually speak to patients and speak to health care workers,” she said. “I would like a breakdown of how much of the [funding] is public and how much of that is private, and then please go walk into a hospital and see if that’s sufficient, see if it’s enough. Because I’m telling you, it’s not.”
