Ontario Nurses Demand Harper Government Sign Health Accord to Address Nursing Gap

TORONTO, March 28, 2014 /CNW/ - The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) is calling on Stephen Harper's federal government to move on a new national Health Accord that will help Ontario address a nursing gap that puts the province second last in the country in the registered nurse (RN)-to-population ratio.

"Ontarians deserve the same high-quality health care as every other Canadian, yet Ontario - the most populous province in the country - has just seven RNs per 1,000 Ontarians. We need to hire 17,500 more RNs in Ontario just to catch up to the other provinces, and yet we saw the loss of some 1,000 RN jobs since 2012," said ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN.

"Our ability to address that grievous gap in nursing care is predicated on the federal government's equitable funding of the provinces. While Ontario has to address a budgetary freeze for health care funding that has undercut our ability to attract and retain experienced RNs, the federal government bears a responsibility for shortchanging the provinces."

In December 2011, the Harper government announced a major cut to the Canada Health Transfer (CHT) of $36 billion over 10 years beginning in 2017. However, the equalization portion of the CHT is being eliminated in 2014, which reduces transfers by another $16.5 billion over the next five years.

Failure to negotiate a new Health Accord will create additional fiscal pressures on Ontario, which faces an aging population and increased demands for complex care requiring the skills and expertise of RNs.

Research shows a direct link between the number of RNs and the quality of patient care; for every extra patient added to the average RN workload, patient complications and deaths increase by 7 per cent.

"Unless federal funding is stable and adequate, our cherished national public health care system is in danger, and specifically in Ontario, this will have a devastating impact on the ability of our RNs to provide safe, high-quality patient care," said Haslam-Stroud. 

According to Ontario Health Minister Deb Matthews, the province will be short $300 million this year for health care because the federal government has broken its promise to all provinces for a six-per-cent increase in health transfers for two years after the expiry of the Health Accord.

ONA agrees with Health Minister Matthews' assessment when she said, "It's less money to reduce wait times, it's less money to hire nurses, it's less time to provide Ontario families and particularly Ontario seniors with the care that they need." 

"The federal government is apparently willing to balance its budget on the backs of Ontario nurses and their patients," said Haslam-Stroud.

ONA is the union representing 60,000 registered nurses and allied health professionals, as well as more than 14,000 nursing student affiliates providing care in hospitals, long-term care facilities, public health, the community, clinics and industry.

SOURCE: Ontario Nurses' Association

Ontario Nurses' Association
Ken Marciniec   [phone] ext. 2306; [email protected]
Melanie Levenson  [phone] ext.2369; [email protected]

Visit us at: www.ona.org; Facebook.com/OntarioNurses; Twitter.com/OntarioNurses