The North Bay Regional Health Centre has taken drastic measures in a bid to avoid an estimated $14 million deficit, implementing major staffing cuts bring down costs.

The hospital informed the workforce yesterday that 158 full-time jobs will be slashed, which has left many worried about the level of care that can now be expected from the Health Centre. The hospital has taken another viewpoint though and president Paul Heinrich said the cuts will actually mean the facility will run with greater efficiency.

“It’s going to mean improved patient care in many respects. What we’re doing is similar to other organizations in the province, and they’re able to get good outcomes with less expenditure than us, and that’s the bar that we’re going to achieve as well,” he said.

However, despite that ambitious prediction from Heinrich, the North Bay Regional Health Centre has come under fire for the substantial job cuts. Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli was critical of the North Bay health system but laid the blame at the doorstep of the liberal Ontarian government.

“That’s in addition to the 197 front-line health care workers that were fired in the last couple of years,” he said in an interview on Morning North.

“Also, we’ve got 60 hospital beds that have been now closed in the city of North Bay [in the last few years], so it’s not very nice to be back [at Queen’s Park] and not get any answers.”

There has also been an accusation that the remaining staff will now be overworked while also performing with the potential threat of their own future job security in question. Michael Hurley, the President of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/Canadian Union of Public Employees, says that ultimately it will be patients who will bear the brunt of staff cuts.

“No community in Ontario is suffering hospital cuts to the extent that the North Bay community is suffering them,” said Hurley. “The Liberals saddled North Bay with an enormously expensive P3 hospital after promising to scrap the deal and they are cutting the hospital’s budget by almost six per cent a year. The province must step in immediately with funding to stop the bleeding out of vital patient services.”

The hospital has been forced into the position as it received $14 million less than it needed to maintain operations at full capacity through 2015. As the department attempts to recover that deficit it has also had to close 30 beds alongside the outgoing staff members.