More budget cuts ahead for MUHC

MONTREAL – The job cuts at the McGill University Health Centre are much deeper than previously disclosed – with more than 270 positions eliminated and scores more to go in the next two years, The Gazette has learned.

The MUHC has already completed the first phase of $28.6 million in cuts imposed by the provincial government. No department has been spared – from nursing in the trauma ward to a dedicated housekeeping squad to scrub rooms clear of the deadly C. difficile bug.

Until now, MUHC officials have said that the first phase of cuts would amount to between 150 and 200 positions being eliminated. In fact, the exact figure is 277.

The breakdown is as follows:

– A total of 151 filled positions have been closed, which includes 38 nursing positions. The MUHC hopes to reassign nurses who have lost their jobs on some floors to other departments.

– Thirteen managers have lost their jobs.

– A total of 113 positions – which had been vacant prior to the cuts, and for which the MUHC could have hired people – will go unfilled. That includes 42 vacant nursing positions.

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MUHC planners are now completing the second phase of cuts, which will amount to $21.4 million in savings, to be spread out over the next two years until the end of fiscal year 2015.

The MUHC has identified six areas of cuts, which are described as “grands projets d’optimisation.” Those areas targeted are the Lachine Hospital, operating rooms throughout the hospital network, labs, medical imaging, ambulatory or outpatient services and staff mixes.

The MUHC board of directors is now reviewing the cuts, which will be submitted to the Quebec Health Department next week, after which more details might be made public.

MUHC officials have so far been silent on the exact nature of the second round of cuts.

However, one idea under consideration is renegotiating lower prices on supplies for the operating rooms. Supplies actually take up a bigger part of the operating-room budget than salaries, explained Ian Popple, an MUHC spokesperson.

“It’s very challenging,” Popple said of the cost-cutting process. “Ultimately, we want to make the MUHC more fiscally responsible while maintaining excellent health care.”

He added that the second phase of cuts is geared toward the MUHC’s mission of tertiary and quaternary care. Some examples of such specialized care include heart transplants and cancer treatment.

Popple could not rule out more job cuts in the 14,000-employee hospital network as part of the second phase of savings. “We’re trying to do what we can without affecting patient care.”

Judy Pasiolan, a member of the executive of the MUHC Employees’ Union, accused MUHC management of not properly posting positions that might be available.

“HR does not have a clue of what’s going on,” he said. “It’s like the head of the snake is not knowing what the tail is doing.”

Unionized employees have taken to wearing jeans to protest the job cuts. A massive demonstration in front of the Montreal General Hospital is scheduled for May 15.

“We are going through bumping right now, which is a really difficult task,” Pasiolan said, explaining the process of unionized employees with greater seniority who have lost their positions being reassigned the jobs of those with less seniority who have been laid off.

Pasiolan noted that the housekeeping staff at the Montreal General learned Tuesday that seven positions had been closed, just as the hospital is in the midst of an outbreak of vancomycin-resistant enterocccus, a bacterium that is easily spread and causes diarrhea.

The MUHC was compelled to make the cuts after government auditors discovered in December 2012 that its finances were in much worse shape than previously known, with a projected “realistic” deficit of $115 million – greater than the shortfalls of all other Montreal hospitals combined.