Rally will call on Pembroke Regional Hospital to reconsider contracting of sterilization of surgical instruments

PEMBROKE, ON, June 20, 2016 /CNW/ - Leaders from healthcare unions from across eastern Ontario will join staff at the Pembroke Regional Hospital (705 Mackay Street, Pembroke) to rally at noon on Monday June 20.

The rally will call on Pembroke Regional Hospital to reconsider its decision to enter a 5-year contract for the reprocessing and sterilization of surgical instruments to SteriPro in Mississauga. Trillium Health Partners, which comprises the major Credit Valley and Mississauga hospitals recently ended its relationship with SteriPro after only 4 years of a 10-year contract and brought sterilization of instruments back in house.

"We know from our members at SteriPro and Trillium, that quality and cost issues led to the end of the relationship with Trillium. We don't believe that the Pembroke Regional Hospital is in a financial position to absorb significant increases in costs, which is the problem that Trillium faced with this contractor. We are afraid that the hospital was not fully aware of the performance and quality issues with SteriPro at Trillium and as a result did not conduct a comprehensive risk assessment," says Louis Rodrigues, Vice-president of the Ontario Council of Hospital Unions/CUPE, who will attend the rally.

"We are asking the Pembroke Regional Hospital to reconsider the contracting out of sterilization. We are very concerned about costs increasing significantly and about the potential for quality issues. Our hope is that the scrutiny that this decision is receiving will push the hospital to take a second look," says Simone Burger, president of CUPE local 1502, which represents staff at the hospital.

SOURCE Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (CUPE)

Louis Rodrigues, president, vice-president Ontario Council of Hospital Unions: [phone]; Simone Burger: [phone]; Stella Yeadon, CUPE Communications: [phone]