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Alliston hospital to fire 13 nurses as province lowers funding to pre-pandemic levels 

March 23, 2023   ·   0 Comments

By Sam Odrowski

Stevenson Memorial Hospital in Alliston is firing 13 nurses amid funding cuts from the province.

The Simcoe County Health Coalition released a statement highlighting the sudden decrease in nursing staff at the hospital.

“A report that 13 nurses are being laid off from the Stevenson Memorial Hospital in New Tecumseth comes as our healthcare system continues to face unprecedented high wait times for an increasing array of services, and severe short-staffing and underfunding levels,” read the statement.

A spokesperson for Stevenson Memorial Hospital told CTV that the additional funding capacity given to the hospital during the pandemic is returning to pre-pandemic levels.

“The hospital is facing a deficit for the 2022-23 fiscal year, so to help realign the organization’s finances, there will be some changes,” said the spokesperson.

Alliston resident and co-chair of the Simcoe County Health Coalition Melanie Morris said, “These layoffs are a terrible shock to our community. Losing 13 nurses is very significant to a growing community.”

The Simcoe County Health Coalition is profoundly disappointed with this action and vows to continue the fight to improve our local healthcare services.

“As the population in New Tecumseth and other areas of Simcoe County continues to grow, our services continue to be underfunded and understaffed. Across Ontario, the hospital crisis continues to burn through the resilience of the province’s truly heroic healthcare staff. This is not the time to remove valuable, hard-working nurses from our overtaxed system,” said the health coalition.

“While many of Ontario’s large hospitals are running at or over 100 percent capacity, there are hospital beds, entire floors and units, and operating rooms that exist across the province but are closed because they have not been funded and staffed. In fact, Ontario is the province with the lowest level of hospital funding and the fewest hospital beds per capita in the country.“

The Simcoe County Health Coalition says it is organizing to fight the current government to increase health care funding and keep hospitals publicly funded. The group encourages the public to get involved.

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