HAMILTON - The Ontario Ministry of Health’s announcement today of
$92.5 million in funding for home care does not appear to address the
real crisis in the system, says the union representing striking nurses
at the Hamilton-Wentworth Victorian Order of Nurses.
The MoH says today’s announcement (actually a re-announcement of
money first announced in April 1998) will create more than 735
full-time and part-time nursing positions. That won’t happen the way
the home care system is set up now, said striker Lois Boggs, president
of Local 269 of the Ontario Public Service Employees Union.
“The real problem in home care today is a staff retention
problem,” said Boggs. “A nurse working in home care starts out
making 15 per cent less than a hospital nurse and ends up making 30
per cent less.
“Unless the funding goes directly to front-line workers, no one
is going to take those jobs,” she said.
About 100 nurses dramatized the problem this morning when they went
to Henderson Hospital to fill out job application forms.
“For all we know, this money could be going to pay off deficits
at the Community Care Access Centres,” said Boggs. “The projected
deficit here in Hamilton-Wentworth is $8 million, which is more than
twice the money they’re getting from the announcement.
“The real problem in home care is that the competitive bidding
system causes service providers to under-bid to get the work, and then
they can’t afford to pay the decent wages that would actually keep
nurses and other workers working in home care.
“If this government is serious about home care, it will ditch the
competitive bidding process and stop starving home care providers.”
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For more information: Lois Boggs (905) 541-5212; (905) 525-5527
