This opinion-editorial was originally published by the London Free Press on April 25, 2026.
Silas: We need more nurses, not fewer, working at LHSC
LHSC plans to cut 288 registered nursing positions, reducing care from RNs by more than 560,000 hours each year
Ontario’s Health Minister Sylvia Jones should know that nurses in Ontario are working against the odds to provide timely and high-quality care, too often being tasked to do more with fewer resources.
Across the health-care system, 71 per cent of nurses who responded to a national survey conducted in early 2026 by Viewpoints Research on behalf of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions report regularly working overcapacity – working conditions that compromise the safety of both patients and nurses.
This is the context in which the London Health Sciences Centre (LHSC) is planning to cut 288 registered nurses, reducing care from RNs by more than 560,000 hours each year. At the same time, hospital officials say they plan to hire 108 registered practical nurses. It should go without saying that health-care professionals are not interchangeable.
LHSC is part of the Ontario Hospital Association, which lobbied for a four per cent funding increase to maintain hospital operations. This increase was announced as a part of Ontario’s provincial budget this spring, yet hundreds of RN positions are on the chopping block.
The move to cut RN positions and add RPNs effectively pits nurses against each other and pushes those still on the frontlines to work even more overcapacity.
In fact, more than 700 frontline nurse and health-care worker positions have been cut in the province since January 2025, the Ontario Nurses Association says. The results of cuts are predictable: longer waits for patients, unsafe workloads for health-care workers, and depleted access to care.
While the nursing shortage is impacting access to care across the country, the reality is that Ontario already has the worst nurse staffing levels per capita in Canada. We need more nurses, not fewer. Ignoring this reality is akin to the Ontario government putting their heads in the sand.
Provinces such as British Columbia, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia are working toward implementing safe minimum nurse-patient ratios. So why did the Ontario government actively push back against this life-saving staffing model during the latest round of collective bargaining? This move goes directly against what Minister Jones says is her goal – to have strong health human resources and provide a high quality of care to Ontarians.
Ontario patients deserve better. We need all hands on deck across every level of health-care expertise to meet the needs of patients, who pay the ultimate price when frontline health-care workers face cutbacks in the name of savings. When it comes to health care, staffing decisions need to be made based on safe and quality care, not bottom lines.
Enough with the layoffs. Enough with pitting nurses against each other. It’s time for the Ontario government to take their heads out of the sand and do right by patients.
-30-