|
Newsletter
|
Donate
More than 200 nursing jobs to be eliminated as part of London Health Sciences Centre restructuring
Posted: April 1, 2026
(March 31, 2026) By: Isha Bhargava, CBC News
Staff reductions to happen through voluntary resignations or retirements, hospital says
Southwestern Ontario’s largest hospital network will cut more than 200 registered nurse (RN) positions through attrition over the next three to five years.
London Health Sciences Centre’s (LHSC) supervisor says the reductions are part of an overall restructuring process meant to bring staffing and costs in line with other Ontario hospitals.
The province’s nursing union and health care advocates are warning this could have a negative impact on patient care and increase already crushing workloads for frontline staff.
Around 212 full-time RN positions will be cut through retirements or voluntary departures in the restructuring period, while LHSC simultaneously hires 108 registered practical nurses (RPN) during that period, said the hospital’s supervisor David Musyj.
“They are not being laid off, so the staff that are here can continue to work here until they resign or retire,” he said.
Musyj explained the decision followed a benchmarking process it started in 2024 in which the hospital network compared staffing and operations with other hospitals. He said it’s a routine exercise that assesses what’s being done right and what further changes need to be made. LHSC looked at 15 peer hospital networks across Ontario.
RNs can care for patients with more complex needs in unpredictable situations, whereas RPNs who have less comprehensive and more focused education are suited to patients with less complex needs, and patients with stable and predictable conditions, according to the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario. RNs typically earn around $20,000 more than RPNs.
Since 2019, LHSC’s clinical staffing has grown 23 per cent but the inpatient population only increased by 4.5 per cent and outpatient needs by 11 per cent, Musyj said.
“There’s a difference between growing staff but at the same time your [patient] volumes are growing nowhere near that,” he said. “So as a result, that just shows the disconnect and unfortunately that’s leading to the operating deficit.”
LHSC has been dealing with a ballooning $150 million budget deficit since 2024. Although final numbers are expected in June, Musyj said the operating deficit has dipped to just over $130 million this year.
RN losses will add to strained health-care system
Confirmation of the readjustment comes after the Ontario Nurses’ Association said in a news release on Tuesday about the cuts. The union said the hospital is cutting 288 RN positions across several units, including pediatric, adult ambulatory and inpatient care.
Both Musyj and the Ontario Ministry of Health said the ONA’s figure is inaccurate. Musyj said the 288 figure includes job reductions from 2024 plus, the upcoming three years.
Musyj and the ministry both said the reductions would not affect patient care.
The ONA disagrees.
“These cuts will negatively impact patient care and increase already crushing workloads for nurses working hard to provide timely, high-quality care,” said ONA in the release, adding that the jobs cuts amount to nearly 563,000 total hours of RN care.
“While the employer claims this is part of a benchmarking exercise to align with similarly sized academic hospitals, ONA believes it is the employer’s way of cutting corners on patient care to save money.”
Peter Bergmanis of the London chapter of the Ontario Health Coalition, said the coming years will only increase the need for frontline hospital workers in places like London that have large patient catchment areas.
“If we’ve actually had frontline staffing increases, that would have taken care of the numbers that are being claimed here so I don’t know where that figure is coming from, but it certainly isn’t coming from the people who do the frontline work,” Bergmanis said.
“You can come up with any kind of numbers you want. But in the end, there isn’t a person in this city that’s ever said, ‘Oh boy, LHSC is doing more for less. This is just an outrage.”
The nursing association said the cuts come at a time when public trust in the hospital’s leadership is at an all time low, pointing to the two civil lawsuits LHSC launched against several of its former senior administration for their alleged involvement in a $60 million fraud scheme.
The accused include the hospital’s former chief executive officer, former director of facilities, his personal contacts and two other executives. All of the accused deny the allegations and have filed statements of defense. The matter has not yet been tested or proven in court.
“It’s unacceptable that a hospital like LHSC, which serves thousands of acute patients, is cutting the registered nurses who provide front-line care, while their past leadership is being investigated for embezzling money,” said Erin Ariss, ONA’s provincial president.
Musyj said the budgetary changes have nothing to do with the lawsuits or fraud allegations.
Musyj said the hospital will continue monitoring staffing and patient levels and make changes accordingly. He said these changes are much different from when he took over in 2024, and immediately terminated one-third of LHSC’s leadership and executive staff.
“We’ve made substantial progress with respect to some of the positive changes we made without impacting patient care negatively whatsoever,” he added.
Ariss said LHSC is part of the Ontario Hospital Association which lobbied for four per cent funding increases to maintain hospital operations. The funding was approved in Ontario’s budget last week so the hospital has “no excuse to move forward with these cuts,” said Ariss.
ONA said it will continue to lobby the province for mandatory safe staffing ratios and to hold health-care employers accountable for understaffing hospitals.
“Mandatory staffing ratios are the best way to ensure safe working conditions for front-line staff and timely, high-quality patient care,” Ariss said.
