I am so appalled and disgusted by the nursing cuts that have occurred in our community. Registered nurses are such an integral part of our health care system. Their education, skill set and years of experience help provide for the best quality of care for all of us, including our loved ones. How is it okay and justifiable to allow nurses to be let go and therefore allowing it to negatively affect our quality of care. Why are such cuts not being made to executive staff? Perhaps if they took more of a pay cut in their salaries that would then help with keeping the nursing staff. As a resident of the community, when I have had to visit the hospital, I have been fortunate enough to have received excellent quality care from the nurses who had helped me. We as a community need to stand up for these nurses and advocate for them. Their role is so important to the type of care that we receive in our health system. I do not understand why more people in the community are not up in arms over theses losses. It is clear that the type of care that we will get in the future will be very different from the type of care that we have been receiving up to this point. In the end, it is us, the patients, that are going to suffer because the quality of care is going to dissipate. I heard on the radio that there is an online petition going around about this and it can be found at http:/ / www.morenurses.ca/ take-action/ sign-the-petition/ . As members of this community, we need to show our nurses that we value them, their work, their dedication and their compassion. We also need to advocate for our healthcare, the quality of care that we receive and the type of care that we expect to receive. We need to ask ourselves, why is their sufficient funds to invest in creating a new mega-hospital, but there is not sufficient funds to invest in keeping these nursing jobs? I will be contacting my MP & I challenge you to do the same.