MPP Kernaghan sounds alarm about health care job cuts at London Health Sciences

LONDON – Ontario NDP MPP Terence Kernaghan (London North Centre) hosted a round table discussion with registered nurses from ONA local 100 to discuss the growing healthcare crisis in London and across Ontario. Frontline healthcare workers shared alarming concerns about staffing shortages, workplace violence, burnout, and the worsening impact of hallway medicine on patient care:

“After years of neglect from both Conservatives and Liberal governments, Ontario’s healthcare system is being held together by exhausted nurses running on compassion alone,” said MPP Kernaghan. “Cutting 288 nurse positions will only deepen hallway medicine; spike wait times and put lives at risk because every additional patient assigned to a nurse increases mortality rates by as much as 7 to 8 per cent.

“Nurses are facing violence, burnout, and impossible workloads. While patients receive care in hallways and storage closets without dignity or privacy, the Ford government is making things worse with their cuts. Nurses and frontline health care workers are doing everything they can, but their compassion is not enough to fill the gap that Ford’s cuts have created. It’s time to undo the cuts and fix our hospitals.”