Media Advisory - Ontario Nurses Join Health Care Protest: Hundreds of front-line RNs rally to save community hospital services

TORONTO, June 3, 2013 /CNW/ - Hundreds of front-line nurses - including members of the Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) as well as registered nurses and leaders from across Canada - will join hundreds of Ontarians in a rally tomorrow to protest service cuts in Ontario's community hospitals.

ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN will join nurses from other provinces who are in town to attend the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) biennial convention at the "Save our Services" rally. The rally is being organized by the Ontario Health Coalition and will see concerned citizens from across the province being bused in for the event.

Also participating will be the leaders of nurses' unions country-wide.

Especially in Ontario, the freeze on hospital funding has resulted in bed closures, service cuts and hundreds of front-line RN cuts. In this province alone, more than 800 RN positions have been cut since the beginning of 2012, the equivalent of more than one million hours of nursing care lost.

ONA is the union representing 60,000 front-line RNs and allied health professionals and more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in Ontario hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, industry and clinics.

Who:	Front-line nurses from across Canada
What:	Rally to save hospital services
When:	Tuesday, June 4, 2013 at 12:30 pm
Where:	Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Hepburn Block (Grosvenor and Queen's Park Circle)

 

SOURCE: Ontario Nurses' Association

or to arrange a media interview:

Ontario Nurses' Association:
Sheree Bond [phone], ext. 2430; cell: [phone]; [email protected]
Melanie Levenson [phone], ext. 2369; [email protected]