Facing growing financial and operational pressures, Chatham-Kent’s hospital is tightening its belt by eliminating dozens of full-time and part-time positions.
However, no layoffs are currently expected.
The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance announced on Tuesday that it will be cutting 49 positions from the hospital as part of a multi-year financial recovery plan to eliminate the organization’s deficit. Of those positions, 32 are full-time, and 17 are part-time.
Hospital officials said they plan to achieve these reductions through vacant positions and attrition. Currently, 19 of the positions to be eliminated are vacant, and there are another 25 vacant positions that will assist with reassignments or transfers.
CKHA President and CEO Adam Topp said hospital management is committed to ensuring these changes do not result in layoffs
“We will need to go through a process that involves working with the unions, as required by the collective agreement, that goes through a process of reassignment, of bumping, of potential voluntary exits in terms of early retirements,” he said. “The expectation is, given our natural turnover, which is about six percent a year… all of those 49 positions will be absorbed without any individual leaving the organization.”
The majority of positions facing elimination are from CKHA’s float pools, which are comprised of nurses, aides, and technicians who work across various departments rather than being assigned to one unit.
According to CKHA officials, the float pools were resized during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the organization faced a higher vacancy rate and pandemic-related sick time. As a result, a total of 27 full-time float pool positions will be eliminated to match a lower vacancy rate. Other departments that will be impacted include medicine, dialysis, and surgery.
With staffing costs representing the majority of hospital expenditures, the cuts are expected to save CKHA around $3.5 million annually starting in the 2027/2028 fiscal year.
Topp said that while many staff members predicted this announcement, there are some who are likely very anxious about the decision.
“I think with this type of news, it’s stressful for staff, and we’ve made sure that there’s an employment assistance program in place on site for the staff that are affected,” he said.
The position changes will be implemented gradually and will take around six months to complete, Topp added.
Like many Ontario hospitals, CKHA is currently facing financial and operational pressures caused by rising costs, an aging population, increasing complexity of care, as well as aging infrastructure and equipment.
The hospital’s current budgeted deficit for the 2026/2027 fiscal year is $4.2 million, down from $4.8 million the year before.
Topp said he isn’t ruling out further cuts to staff positions in the future.
“The management is working really diligently to balance our budget… we don’t know exactly what is going to be required as we go forward. We certainly don’t know what our future funding picture looks like either, so I won’t say that this is the end, but I will say this is a major part of our multi-year plan to address our deficit,” he said.
CKHA previously eliminated eight full-time management positions to reduce costs in the fall of 2025, resulting in five layoffs.
