Horizon Health is refusing to fill housekeeping supervisor positions in its hospitals, a week after concerns were raised about the cleanliness of patient rooms, according to the Canadian Union of Public Employees.

Ralph McBride, the provincial co-ordinator for CUPE, said Horizon Health's refusal to fill housekeeping jobs could explain complaints about the cleanliness of its hospitals. (CBC)

Horizon Health admitted last week that 40 per cent of patients were not satisfied with the condition of their rooms and photos were released that showed dirt swept into corners, chipped paint on walls and other problems.

A Horizon vice-president pointed to aging hospitals, a lack of training and a shortage of supervisors to inspect the rooms as potential contributing factors to unclean rooms.

But Ralph McBride, the CUPE provincial coordinator, said the province’s largest health authority has refused to fill a dozen floor supervisor positions that are vacant.

He said that could help explain why there is a problem with the cleanliness of hospital rooms.

"Those individuals basically were around and they supervised and managed the floors,” he said.

“You had a manager that would detail the work, but then they had a layer of individuals that were CUPE, individuals, staff, that would to around and manage the work areas, make sure the work is being done properly and in a timely manner and that the proper tools and that were being used."

The CUPE official said Horizon Health has been eliminating the supervisor positions through attrition over the last 18 months.

Andrea Seymour, a vice-president at Horizon Health, said last week that four in 10 patients are not happy with the conditions of their hospital rooms. (CBC)

McBride said six of the province's smaller hospitals no longer have supervisor coordinators for cleaning staff.

"We used to have supervisors up at [the Upper] River Valley [Hospital] or the Perth-Andover Hospital, they're not there anymore. So it's just the workers going around doing the work,” he said.

The supervisor jobs were union positions.

A Horizon Health spokesperson said in response that only four full-time and one part-time environmental services supervisor positions have been eliminated since the beginning of 2012.

The condition of Horizon Health’s hospitals has been under the public microscope for more than a year after Penny Ericson, a former nurse and nursing professor, released a report that detailed a long list of problems with nursing care and cleanliness at Fredericton’s Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital.

That report prompted Horizon Health to hold a series of meetings around the province so patients and family members could outline their concerns about the authority’s hospitals.