TORONTO – The Ontario Public Service Employees Union is
filing a notice of injunction this week to stop cuts to mental health
services at Rouge Valley Health Services, for the hospitals serving East
Scarborough, Pickering and Ajax.
The hospital CEO Rik Ganderton has announced 220 job cuts at
Rouge over the next three years. These include the elimination of 20 mental
health beds from the Ajax-Pickering Hospital to move to Scarborough
Centenary. OPSEU President Warren (Smokey) Thomas was at Queen’s Park today
and outlined the union’s concerns.
“We believe that the cuts at Rouge represent an abuse of
process, with the residents of West Durham and Scarborough paying a heavy
price for decisions they were no part of. If the government will not act to
enforce the process they established with Bill 36, the Local Health System
Integration Act, then we are forced seek an injunction to do so.”
Thomas called on the Health Minister to act now to prevent
irreparable harm to the mental health services in the community. “George
Smitherman says he can do nothing because Rouge Valley has been ‘poorly run
and exceeded their budget.’ Aren’t these the exact conditions in which he
should be acting?”
OPSEU is asking the government to intervene and insist the
LHIN follow the process defined in Bill 36, including public consultation on
the planned service changes, not just on the implementation of those
changes.
The size of these cuts indicates residents of these large
urban areas will see a reduction in quality and volume of care at the former
Centenary and Ajax-Pickering hospitals. “These are among the
fastest-growing, and, in terms of health care, the most poorly-served areas
in Ontario,” said Thomas. “Surely we should be expanding health care
services, not cutting them.”
OPSEU Local 311 represents about 500 members at the Rouge
Valley Health System. These members perform a variety of professional roles
at the hospital, from social workers and therapists to lab and diagnostic
imaging staff.
