CUPE Nova Scotia President Danny Cavanagh says, “If the 3% funding cuts being sought by the province’s health minister are in addition to the supposed savings from the shared services review, this is shaping up to be a double whammy to the system.”
Says Cavanagh, “CUPE and other health care unions representing over 30,000 health care workers in our province have expressed their concerns about a review of health care services at the DHAs and the IWK by consultants Ernst and Young.
“Now, just a short time later, they make this additional announcement about budget cuts. How do they expect our health care system to withstand this magnitude of cuts,” asks Cavanagh.
“I want to make it perfectly clear to the provincial government that CUPE believes any attempts to privatize, or ‘sell off’ or centralize parts of our health care system would be ill-advised and not in the interests of Nova Scotians,” says Cavanagh.
CUPE Acute Care Co-ordinator Wayne Thomas says, “The DHAs are now in the process of reviewing services with the direction of government to reduce spending by 3%. Our members who provide frontline services in hospitals, labs and clinics across the province are puzzled as to how this can be done without having a direct impact on patient care.”
For more information:
Danny Cavanagh
CUPE N.S. President
(902) 957-0822 (Cell)
Wayne Thomas
Acute Care Co-ordinator
(902) 752-2244
John McCracken
Atlantic Communications Representative
(902) 455-4180