WINDSOR — NDP MPP Lisa Gretzky (Windsor West) released the following statement in response to news that 80 jobs are poised to be cut at Windsor Regional Hospital:
“My heart goes out to the food and housekeeping service workers at Windsor Regional Hospital (WRH) – 80 of whom may have their livelihoods ripped away. These workers perform essential hospital tasks, including specialized sanitation measures to stop the transmission of infections. The layoffs are expected to cause longer wait times for patients to be moved into hospital beds, and longer waits for patient meals.
Hospitals in Windsor, and across the province, have been struggling for years to make ends meet — the result of chronic funding cuts and freezes under the Wynne Liberals, and continued underfunding under Doug Ford. Patients, and these hardworking hospital staff, pay for that neglect.
Doug Ford’s plan to slash thousands of stable, public sector jobs and make even deeper cuts in health care is taking things from tough to worse for patients, and for the caring and dedicated front-line workers that make our hospitals work.
Windsor deserves more resources for health care — to keep our hospitals cleaner, and our patients safer and as well-cared for as we can. We don’t deserve cuts; we don’t deserve to be dragged backwards.”