As cuts loom at the London Health Sciences Centre, local New Democrat MPPs are taking aim at the provincial health care funding strategy.
The LHSC must find $26-million in savings this year due to inflation and another 0% funding increase from the province.
The NDP critic for health care, Frances Gelinas met with nurses and support workers in London today.
She says the government needs to focus of preventative care, rather than moving services out of the hospital.
"We wait until the elderly, frail person doesn't take their medication properly, doesn't eat properly, gets dizzy, then falls and breaks their hip and ends up in emergency needing surgery. Then they need a whole bunch of support to go home safely," notes Gelinas.
Local MPPs says they have been fielding phone calls from those concerned with the state of local hospitals.
"Morale is terrible. I don't think there's a unit out there that does not complain about the morale. Nurses are being asked to do more with less and it's frustrating," says President of Local 100 of the Ontario Nurses' Association James Murray. "Overall, LHSC is looking at each individual unit to reduce their budget by 1.7%. My overriding concern is that the front line is where those cuts are taking place. We're not seeing those cuts in the bureaucracy of those organizations."
LHSC has said that the equivalent of 97 full-time positions will have to be cut to balance the budget.