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‘Outrage’ as St. Joe’s scraps NICU beds after hiring nurses
Posted: January 17, 2026
(January 16, 2026) By: Joanna Frketich, The Hamilton Spectator
“It seems to be state secrets trying to get out of either the Ford government or even hospitals what is happening,” said NDP MPP Sandy Shaw, slamming the lack of transparency on hospital cuts.
Nurses had already been hired and trained for a long-awaited expansion of the special care nursery at St. Joseph’s Healthcare when, the union says, the four planned beds were abruptly scrapped.
“The reaction is obviously outrage,” Grace Pierias of the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) said. “We’re super disappointed, very upset, it’s emotional.”
The decision was made by St. Joseph’s according to a statement by Brooke Cowell, executive vice-president of clinical services and chief nursing executive.
Cowell was not made available for an interview and the only reason provided for the lost beds was that the hospital network decided to “postpone” after “evaluating our capacity.” No numbers were provided to back up this explanation.
It has left more questions than answers about why St. Joseph’s would indefinitely postpone the expansion after provincial funding for the beds was announced in November 2024 with much fanfare as part of a wider renovation to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at the Charlton Campus.
“The public needs some clear answers here as to what’s happened,” said Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition, which advocates to protect and improve the health-care system. “That’s quite a significant expansion of capacity that is now not happening.”
Upping the number of beds to 21 from 17 would have been a nearly 25 per increase to the capacity of the NICU, which cares for more than 600 newborns a year.
“That should be our highest priority, looking after our newborns and our sick babies,” said the NDP’s Sandy Shaw, MPP for Hamilton West—Ancaster—Dundas. “It should be the last thing that gets scrapped in the province of Ontario.”
Health Minister Sylvia Jones attended the event to announce the NICU renovation more than one year ago, but neither her office nor the ministry has responded to repeated requests for an explanation from The Spectator.
Losing the NICU beds comes at the same time St. Joseph’s has a deficit of $25 million on its roughly $800-million budget for the fiscal year that ends on March 31. The hospital network is currently implementing a plan to cut $9.1 million, including eliminating 38 jobs and 24 vacant positions at the Charlton, West Fifth and King campuses.
The 62 lost jobs don’t count the cuts taking place in the NICU — neither St. Joseph’s nor the union could put a number on how many nursing jobs will be lost along with the beds.
“They are scrapping whatever programs they can,” said Pierias, the ONA’s region 4 vice-president representing St. Joseph’s. “We’re just seeing cuts like I’ve never seen honestly. It’s alarming.”
Shaw said hospitals and Premier Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservative government need to be more transparent and forthcoming about what is being cut and why as the majority of hospitals in Ontario are forecasting a deficit for the current fiscal year, including $152 million at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS), which has a budget of roughly $1.6 billion.
“It seems to be state secrets trying to get out of either the Ford government or even hospitals what is happening,” Shaw said. “The answer generally is that there’s no changes that will impact patient care or access to services at any hospital in Ontario. Well, we know that’s not true.”
Cowell says St. Joseph’s will go ahead with the rest of the NICU renovation, including more private rooms, a modern design and enhanced infection prevention measures.
“While this was a very difficult decision about our future capacity, there will be no reduction in current care or service,” Cowell said. “We hope to offer any affected individuals roles in other vacant positions and we will be supporting staff throughout this process.”
The ONA questioned what other roles the hospital could offer specialized NICU nurses.
“Employers love to say, ‘We’ll find other work for these nurses we’ve hired for NICU,’” Pierias said. “These nurses are highly trained and highly specific practitioners … That is yet another insult to our profession.”
