Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare in Windsor is refuting in the strongest terms allegations it is eliminating registered nursing positions.
The allegations come from the Ontario Nurses' Association. It claims the hospital "informed ONA that it plans to re-evaluate the role of the RNs in providing care for patients."
"I am dumbfounded that this employer has responded to a problem by intentionally worsening it," wrote ONA President Vicki McKenna.
She added that other Ontario hospitals are offering hiring bonuses of up to $10,000 for new RNs, and "there is no reason for Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare not to do the same, as there is a provincial program to fund this."
McKenna said there are 26 registered nursing positions vacant at the hospital, and one full-time, 11 part-time, and seven temporary jobs have already been eliminated.
"The employer knows full well that announcing it is leaving just a skeletal number of RNs to provide care for its patients will drive existing RNs out."
The hospital responded, "Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare has no intention to phase out or eliminate the integral role of the Registered Nurse at our hospital. Any statement otherwise is false."
Instead, it said it is "taking this opportunity to not fill already vacant positions and closely examine the Model of Care for its Complex Medical and Restorative Care programs."
It continued to say the quality of care will not suffer during the review, and "until such time that our review process has been completed, we will not be providing any further comments on this matter."
Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare has been open about its challenges recruiting nurses but said it continues to value "the skills, ability, and scope of practice in this important role within our interprofessional post-acute care team."
In September, outgoing CEO Janice Kaffer said it was struggling to recruit staff even before the pandemic. She blamed ongoing provincial funding cuts and aggressive recruitment by hospitals in Michigan. Just weeks later, it fired 24 employees who did not comply with its mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy.