Although AHS CEO Stephen Duckett says repeatedly he wants to avoid layoffs as he cuts back health services, layoffs are already happening at one rural hospital.
Several LPNs and Nursing Assistants at the Brooks Health Centre will be laid off as a result of major downsizing at the facility. Seventeen Registered Nurses have also received position elimination notices, lay-offs, although most of them are expected to move into other positions.
"We are not currently looking at lay-offs and we will not consider lay-offs unless and until it becomes absolutely necessary. Any rumours or statements you have heard to the contrary about layoffs this week for example, are wrong, misleading and mischievous," Duckett said on his blog today, in an apparent reference to recently reported remarks from UNA President Heather Smith. "Please bear that in mind the next time you hear a rumour from that source," Duckett says.
But it's no rumour that layoffs in Brooks are already happening.
Registered Nurses at Brooks may also face lay-offs in the near future, when nurses now on maternity or other leaves try to return to find there are no jobs.
The normal full RN complement in the Brooks hospital four months ago was about 15 and three-quarters, Full time equivalent (FTE) RN positions. (Only five of which were full-time jobs, the others part-time). But several vacant positions have not been filled and other nurses have been on maternity or other leaves. The new plan is for a total of 7.86 FTE or a cut by nearly half of the RNs in the acute hospital.
"Mr. Liepert and Mr. Duckett have repeatedly said there's no hiring freeze, it's just 'vacancy management', but many, probably hundreds of nursing positions are being eliminated," says UNA President Heather Smith. "It's very coy to say there are no lay-offs, when there actually are, and, really, if the nursing jobs are gone, it doesn't matter if it's lay-offs or attrition, the nurses are not there to provide the care."
Management at Brooks some months ago announced they were going to completely close the Long-term care building at the hospital, which previously had 75 LTC beds. Then they announced 15 beds would be kept open for the higher needs residents, who could not be moved to the new privately owned assisted living facility. Most recently they said 9 sub acute or convalescence beds would also open in the LTC facility. The acute hospital beds in Brooks will drop from 37 beds to 28.
While the staffing is being cut by half in the hospital the number of beds is being reduced by about one-quarter, from 37 to 28 beds.
"Brooks may be the perfect example of Mr. Duckett's plan to move people out of hospital and into long-term care or assisted living. It's a cost-transfer change, not a saving," says Heather Smith.
She points out that it often also involves reduced levels of care, particularly for residents of long-term care who are moved to assistant living.
"Many people we were caring for in long-term care are now forced to pay extra for the very care, baths, nursing care, support, that we were supplying before. It saves government money but at the expense of some of the most vulnerable in our society."
"Duckett does not have a magic way to save money without hurting patients," Heather Smith says. "Reducing costs means reducing staff, which inevitably affects patients."
We also need the hospital beds opened up, not closed down. Moving out the patients who are appropriate to long-term care should be freeing up the acute hospital beds we need in our hospitals.
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