TEGH lays off six patient care co-ordinators
Hospital, union battle over impact on patients
Toronto East General Hospital's decision to lay off six patient care co-ordinators - with as many as five times more layoffs possibly in the works - will seriously reduce patient care, a top union spokesperson charges.
"They will be replacing them with administrators. Patient care will be detrimentally impacted, obviously," said Linda Haslam-Stroud, president of the Ontario Nurses Association.
"My understanding from the employer, they want more supervisors pushing paper and doing the administrative work they require."
But Marla Fryers, the hospital's chief nursing officer and vice-president of programs, denied that patient care will suffer.
The role of the co-ordinators is to make sure patients are getting the co-ordinated health care services their need by, for example, consulting with their doctors and ensuring they are sent for X-rays or other treatments.
The hospital is replacing six co-ordinators in the inpatient and surgery wards, which are union positions, with six non-unionized supervisors.
The supervisors will not only perform the duties of the co-ordinators, but they will have added responsibilities such as hiring, firing, coaching and performance management, Fryers said.
"What we've come to realize is we want to broaden the scope in that position," she said, adding no one is losing their jobs because they can apply for the supervisor positions or bump into vacant jobs.
"We've decided to implement a supervisor role. It will have responsibilities that are with patient care responsibilities, but it will have added responsibilities because it will be a non-union job. The supervisors will take on a much larger role."
But Haslam-Stroud said collective agreements ban the supervisors from performing the front-line duties of the co-ordinators.
"They're eliminating the (co-ordinator) duties. Supervisors can't do patient care. The supervisors will not be doing what we're doing on the front lines," she said.
Laying off six co-ordinators will result in TEGH patients receiving 72,000 fewer hands-on nursing hours a year, Haslam-Stroud said.
"You cannot remove 72,000 hours of RN (registered nurse) care for our patients and expect our patients will receive the same level of care. We are (already) struggling every day to provide quality care," she said.
Fryers, who said the move is cost-neutral, dismissed the union's complaint that patient care will be reduced.
"I believe this change will actually support the organization in providing quality patient care. We've involved the front-line workers in these discussions," she said, adding workers recognize they have to adapt to ongoing changes in health care.
"I think the front line is also looking for a new form of leadership. Because we're not changing the number of nurses at the bed side as the union suggests, but we're maintaining hands-on care and improving supervision, I believe we're improving patient care."
Meanwhile, Haslam-Stroud said the hospital has indicated it will lay off a further 30 co-ordinators on other wards in September or October.
But Fryers said the hospital plans to evaluate this first round of change before proceeding on other units.
