By: Ontario Nurses’ Association
Registered nurses (RNs) and health-care professionals will be joined by their provincial union president in protesting the loss of local health-care services at a Town Hall meeting tonight in Bracebridge and calling for residents to have the services available that they need.
“The bombshell announcement made by Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare that access to local services is being cut has shocked and horrified this community and our members,” says ONA President Erin Ariss, RN. “We are patient advocates, and stand with the community in decrying this rash, dangerous decision that puts patients at risk by making them travel too far to access health care.”
As front-line workers, nurses know the impact of moving services out of communities. The hospital has already cut nine RNs at two sites, replacing them with unregulated personal support workers and is planning to cut more. Ariss says the community needs and deserves the same level of access to quality health-care services as other communities and that nurses cannot be expected to keep doing more with less.
ONA is the union representing more than 68,000 registered nurses and health-care professionals, as well as 18,000 nursing student affiliates, providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.
WHAT: Front-line registered nurses, health professionals and Ontario Nurses’
Association Provincial President Erin Ariss, RN support local community in
decrying cuts to local health-care access
WHERE: Town Hall meeting, Bracebridge Sportsplex, 110 Clearbrook Trail,
Bracebridge, ON
