A registered nurse of over 30 years is very concerned upcoming health care cuts are going to ultimately impact patients.
Dozens from unions across the region attended a rally Tuesday morning in front of Windsor Regional Hospital.
A number of unions hold a rally protesting health care cuts in front of Windsor Regional Hospital, May 24, 2016. (Photo by Jason Viau)
Sue Sommerdyk with the local nursing union says the provincial funding formula is to blame.
"The RPNs should be coming into help us, not to take our jobs. The hospital should be looking at workload and bringing in more help, not less," she says. "Because it just reduces quality of care, all the way around."
Windsor Regional Hospital plans to cut 169 registered nurses starting June 15. Some of the positions will be eliminated, others will be replaced by registered practical nurses.
Once this happens, Sommerdyk says patients will notice a difference.
"It is a big issue for nurses to see the lack of staffing. We already had issues with not enough staff and being able to get the care done in a quality, ethical, safe manner and the nurses are feeling that's [the cuts] going to make it even worse," she says.
Students studying to become an RN in the area have "no future" here.
"Maybe some part-time work. They don't have good paying jobs that they can leave home, but their own home, pay their debts -- their school debts are enormous," says Sommerdyk.
"Many of them will probably go to the States. We've seen this in the past and when they do that we lose whole generations of nurses."
A province-wide healthcare referendum is taking place Saturday in an effort to stop cuts to local hospitals.