Union calls for 50 more beds at Windsor Regional Hospital

Unions in Ontario are calling on the government to provide at least 50 more beds at the Windsor Regional Hospital, which has been struggling to find places to put patients in recent weeks.

Between 20 and 25 surgeries have been postponed in the last month because of overcrowding at the hospital, said staff. At its peak, the Metropolitan campus in Windsor was was operating at 113 per cent capacity.

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• Critical shortage of beds at Windsor Regional Hospital

"We've cut our acute care beds to the point where if we have something like flu we have no surge capacity," explained Michael Hurley, president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions."The Windsor hospital has been cut beyond its capacity to help people."

Unless more beds are provided, Hurley said the the hospital is "doomed" to run over capacity and turn away up to 25 per cent of patients.

"We have hospitals that are overcrowded to an extent that would be considered to be dangerous in other countries," he added, providing Great Britain as an example.

Hurleynoted he had not spoken specifically with staff in Windsor, but the union had completed a survey of its membership which showed workload concerns across the province.

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In the coming weeks the OCHU will be highlighting bed shortages in other hospitals across the province, Hurley added.

"This is not a blip," he said."There is absolutely no surge capacity in the system and hospital staff from nurses to cleaners are working at an exhausting pace, because they have too many patients to care for."