80 positions to be cut at Windsor Regional Hospital

Eighty jobs are on the chopping block at Windsor Regional Hospital.

At a fiscal update meeting Friday, WRH president CEO David Musyj said cost improvement actions will result in the reduction of about 80 non-union staff positions. The hospital promised these are in non-clinical roles such as food and housekeeping services.

Twenty positions have already been cut. Musyj said he hopes the 80 reductions can be done through attrition. These reductions are part of $7.3 million in cost savings that have been identified to bring the hospital to a balanced operating position for the next fiscal year.

"The letters go out pretty much today," said Musyj about the cuts.

According to Musyj, the senior team at WRH also took a 3 per cent pay cut.

According to the findings of facilitator Rob Devitt, the 'optimization review' considers the realignment of Windsor hospitals one of the "most complex transformations in Ontario in the last fifteen years."

In 2013 and 2014, WRHtook on additional services and programs from Hotel-Dieu Grace Hospital, including operating expenses and investments.

The report found that "aged infrastructure is negatively impacting operations" of the hospital, including the rising electricity cost, which has gone up by $600,000 over the last four years. Musyj said the hospital spends $4.2 million a year on just electricity.

"[Plus] we spend over $4 million a year just in maintaining these facilities," said Musy about the multi-site layout of the hospital.

The report also states that additional supports from the government are needed to manage Windsor's "unique" catchment area considered as a population that "struggles with more socioeconomic, family, health and environmental challenges and disabilities than others in Ontario."

According to Musyj, more than 13 per cent of patients in the emergency room at the Ouellette campus of WRH have no primary care provider, which adds an increased responsibility on WRH.