Projected cuts to healthcare in Belleville will be front and center at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions and the Canadian Union of Public Employees and Doug Allan, senior researcher at CUPE, will release full findings of new research report on Ontario hospital care at 2 p.m. at the Belleville Public Library.
A new report from the OCHU notes the turn to health care cutbacks in Ontario harken to the period of Mike Harris, as hundreds of job cuts ravage hospitals across the province, prolonging wait-times and delaying patient care.
A joint media release from the OCHU and CUPE stated the government recently directed hospitals to plan for two per cent annual funding increases until 2027-28, far less than the six per cent average in recent years.
The two organizations warn Ford government’s funding plan will lead to more than 10,000 job losses and reduction of 2,400 hospital beds across the province at a time when 2,000 patients are receiving “hallway healthcare” every day.
