Speaking in Windsor today, Ontario hospital unions say government cutbacks are to blame for a rise in infection-related deaths.
Spokesperson Nicholas Black, who's also a housekeeper at a hospital in northern Ontario, says many of these deaths are preventable.
"Hiring more cleaning staff; more infection control staff; doing a thorough systematic deep clean of our hospitals and the hand washing is a huge issue with the public coming into our hospitals," says Black. "Over the last four or five years the amount of housekeepers that we've lost in the province - we're down almost 45,000 support staff across the province."
Ontario Council of Hospital Union (OCHU) 1st Vice-President Louis Rodrigues says the Public Health Agency of Canada reports that over 3,000 infection-related deaths occur each year in Ontario hospitals.
"We've seen a reduction in staffing and we've seen that it's not the hospitals fault it's to do with the lack of funding," says Rodrigues.
Windsor Regional Hospital spokesperson Steve Erwin says there have been no recent cutbacks. He says the hospital has spent more on cleaning hospitals over the past three years.
Today's stop in Windsor is one of 20 across the province. A recent CUPE conducted survey of 60 Ontario hospitals shows a large majority of support-staff (78%) says they've had more duties added to their workdays.
- with files from AM800's Rob Hindi