The union that represents many workers at Hamilton Health Sciences says the organization’s forecasted 413 job cuts – including the reduction of 143 nursing positions and 84 health care aide roles – come as a blow to a workforce with morale that is already “very low.”
The Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said in a release on Monday that the plan announced in a memo on Friday will undermine services as the hospital system is “already buckling under the pressure of rising demand and insufficient staffing.” The Ontario government, however, insists the cuts will not impact patient care or access to services.
The Friday memo, sent by HHS president and chief executive officer Tracey MacArthur, said the organization – which runs numerous area facilities such as Hamilton General Hospital, Jurivinski Hospital and McMaster University Health Centre – is predicting a 2026-2027 deficit of about $150 million.It also references the Ontario government’s Hospital Sector Stabilization Planning process, a three-year budgeting process built on the assumption of reduced revenue, according to the Ontario Hospital Association.
As part of that process, HHS aims to reduce clinical budgets by two per cent and administrative budgets by five per cent for the 2026-2027 fiscal year, MacArthur said.
“In addition to $40 million of cost reductions achieved last year, further action is required to operate within the funding available to us,” she wrote in the memo, which said one-third of the jobs set to be cut are already vacant. Among the jobs slated for elimination are 97 clerical positions, which come in addition to 20 information technology jobs cut in July, it states.
“Given the high number of nursing roles and current vacancies at HHS, few if any individual nurses will exit HHS,” MacArthur wrote. “HHS currently has approximately 557 vacancies across all job categories in the organization. We will make every reasonable effort to use those vacancies to provide affected employees with opportunities to continue working at HHS.”
MacArthur said “considerable attention has been given to maintaining patient care and reducing the impact on services” when deciding on where to cut.
