Get patients out of the hospital hallways, says Ontario hospital union

The president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions, Michael Hurley, was in Kingston on Aug. 23, warning the public of what he calls false health-care promises from the provincial government.

Hurley was joined by the president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees for Kingston, Mike Rodrigues, to reveal a report called Hallway Medicine: It Can Be Fixed.

Rodrigues says the report shines a light on the “contradictions” in the promises made by the Ontario government.

Hurley and Rodrigues say that after extensive research and number-crunching, they have found that the Progressive Conservatives cannot achieve their promise to address the hospital bed shortage while also cutting public sector spending by four per cent.

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The Kingston Hospital Sciences Centre released a statement regarding the growing demand from patients:

“Earlier this year, it was announced that KHSC had the most improved emergency department wait times in the province. When looking at wait times for admitted patients to get to a bed on an inpatient unit, KHSC has improved from 67th to 36th place out of 73 hospitals in the province. Our ranking for overall wait times has also improved from 53rd to 28th place.”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Earlier this year, it was announced that KHSC had the most improved emergency department wait times in the province. When looking at wait times for admitted patients to get to a bed on an inpatient unit, KHSC has improved from 67th to 36th place out of 73 hospitals in the province. Our ranking for overall wait times has also improved from 53rd to 28th place."

Hurley says the solution to the bed shortage is far from being solved, and that people are living longer and the population is expanding which hospitals need to prepare for, or they will be overflowing with patients in the coming decade.

The Kingston Hospital Sciences Centre added that they understand the public concern about bed shortages across the province and that their recent success has not stopped them from looking at other ways to improve their patient care.