CUPE says the North Bay Regional Health Centre residential addictions program is threatened with closure, so today hospital staff took an unusual step by holding a solidarity day to keep the beds from closing.
In support of patients in treatment and the nurses and therapists who provide the services, throughout Tuesday, NBRHC front-line staff wore black and yellow stickers saying ‘Save North Bay addiction services’.
The union says it is the first of a series of large-scale actions planned to raise awareness about the value of in-hospital residential addictions treatment and build support to stop the closure of the program.
CUPE is concerned about the planned closure of the only hospital-based residential addictions treatment beds in North Bay.
"Hundreds of people have spoken out against the closure on social media and local media comments pages," says a CUPE release.
“We know that there have been some vocal appeals for Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli to intervene to keep the 29 hospital addictions treatment beds in place. People do not want the program to close,” says Michael Hurley president of CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions
Since May 2019, 138 drug-related overdoses and six fatalities have been reported in North Bay says CUPE.
In response, Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli said, "The community, as witnessed at the recent Mayor's roundtable, told us they wanted a centralized mental health and addictions operation. That is exactly what we are delivering with this transfer of funding. It also follows the Needs-Based Planning exercise of Nipissing’s addiction services performed by Dr. Brian Rush last year.
Fedeli says the funding will be reinvested in a Transitional Housing and Crisis Stabilization Centre where Community WMS and Safe Beds will be co-located with an emergency shelter, warming centre, and transitional housing. This model will allow social services and mental health and addictions providers to work together to stabilize clients and provide accessible housing.
"Our government is delivering real action by investing a historic $3.8 billion over the next 10 years to build a comprehensive, integrated and connected mental health and addictions system," added Fedeli.
"OHCU/CUPE’s continued fearmongering and politically-motivated rhetoric regarding funding is irresponsible. Here in Nipissing, our government has demonstrated its commitment to ending hallway health care by providing more than $4.5 million in added funding for the North Bay Regional Health Centre this past year, and we announced an additional $733,835 for capital upgrades last month."
