Media Advisory - Front-line nurses to picket MPP's office: RNs join other
union members to protest PRHC cuts to care
PETERBOROUGH, ON, May 11 /CNW/ - Registered nurses from Peterborough Regional Health Centre, members of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), will join CUPE and OPSEU members today in picketing Liberal MPP Jeff Leal's office to protest cuts to front-line care.
The nurses will gather with other health-care staff at Leal's office at 4:00 pm today.
PRHC recently underwent a peer review that recommended cutting 121 full-time registered nurses, closing 71 beds and making cuts to all areas of the hospital to balance the budget. PRHC plans to move alternate-level-of-care patients out of the hospital and into the community or nursing homes, yet there is a three-year wait list for spots in nursing homes in the community and just two affordable retirement homes in the area - both of which have a two-year wait list for a bed.
ONA is the union representing 55,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals, as well as more than 12,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.
WHAT: ONA protest nursing cuts, bed closures at Peterborough MPP Jeff Leal's office WHEN: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 at 4:00 pm WHERE: Constituency Office of Jeff Leal, MPP, 236 King Street, Peterborough
For further information: Ontario Nurses' Association, Sheree Bond, (416) 964-8833, ext. 2430; cell: (416) 986-8240; Melanie Levenson, (416) 964-8833, ext. 2369
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