St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton continues to put patients first
Recent media attention around cost-saving measures by St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton have focused on our nursing staff. We want to assure our community and patients that we recognize all of our employees play a valuable role in patient care- nurses, doctors, and everyone who takes part in the patient’s journey.
To help understand the situation, we have provided a few Questions and Answers.
What is the situation at St. Joseph’s?
St. Joseph’s needs to balance its budget for 2016/17. For many years there have been no increases to funding to cover inflationary costs of running a hospital, such as increases in salary and heat and hydro. While the provincial government has just announced an increase to hospitals in its budget, we do not yet know what that will mean and are continuing to be responsible to our community in balancing our budget. For more information about the budget, please go to http://www.stjoes.ca/news-events/fiscal-sustainability
How has this affected patient care at St. Joseph’s?
Patients will still receive quality patient care by exceptional staff and doctors. Access to required services remains the same. There will be changes to how care is delivered, where it is delivered and who is delivering the care.
How are nurses affected?
While St. Joseph’s has done everything possible to minimize the effect on staff, regrettably some of these changes will impact staff. Normal staff turnover, voluntary retirement offers, and managing vacant positions will help to reduce the effect on our current staff.
Some nursing positions have been eliminated due to changes in programs, where the need for nursing has changed. In other circumstances, we have changed who is providing care, based on the patient’s needs. We are ensuring that the right person is caring for the right patient in the right circumstance. In some cases, this has meant Registered Practical Nurses (RPN) are best for patient care where previously there had been a Registered Nurse (RN). Both are nurses and patients will experience the same quality care by a qualified professional. This is not new to St. Joseph’s nor is it new to many hospitals. Most hospitals in Ontario use this team approach to ensure best patient care.
We recognize that all of our nursing staff provide valuable and compassionate care to our patients.
Please talk to your healthcare provider if you have any questions.