NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is calling on the Liberal government to address staffing shortages in Canada’s health care system by streamlining the process to hire more internationally trained workers and hiring more long-term care workers while increasing their wages. Singh made the call at a press conference with Ontario Nurses Association President Catherine Hoey on Thursday. His message to the federal government comes as many emergency rooms across the country have announced temporary closures and reduced services due to staff shortages, while nurses are leaving the industry en masse. “This is what we are saying to the prime minister: invest in the solutions, show up and be a leader,” Singh said. “It’s not enough to say this is a provincial issue and then wash your hands of it, and the federal government has a role to play.” Singh said he wants to see the Liberal government work with the provinces and territories to speed up the process for internationally trained health care workers to have their credentials recognized. The management of health care systems and the delivery of care is largely a provincial and territorial responsibility. Hoi and the heads of various nursing unions say that while it is important to recruit new workers, the problem is keeping them, especially because of poor working conditions, which in some cases are caused by provincial policies. Hoey said Premier Doug Ford’s policies in Ontario, for example, have led nurses to other careers and early retirement, and the province has turned to private health care providers to deal with backlogs. “All levels of government have a responsibility to ensure that Canadians have access to high-quality public health care,” Hoey said. “Your salary should never determine whether you have the right to care or be too blunt, whether you have the right to live or die,” he also said. He said he wants to see the federal government create a national health workforce “to help coordinate a comprehensive plan,” to prevent provinces from hiring staff from each other and to address other gaps in both system. Health workers across the country have been sounding the alarm that the system has been in crisis for months. Meanwhile, a new study by the Association of Registered Practical Nurses of Ontario (WeRPN) says staffing shortages are putting patient care at “critical risk.” “I think these findings will shock the public – nearly 7 in 10 nurses see patient health being put at risk because there are simply not enough time, resources and staffing levels,” said Dianne Martin, CEO of WeRPN. press release about the study. “That’s worrying, now it’s normalising.” According to the study, nearly 80 percent of nurses report that they have reached a “tipping point” regarding their work, while the number of nurses surveyed who said they have “never been prouder to be a nurse ”, went from 67 percent. in 2020, to 36 percent in May 2022, and nearly half of the nurses surveyed say they are considering leaving the profession. Nurses in Ontario in particular have spoken out against the resounding negative effects of the province’s Bill 124, which caps their annual salary increases at 1 per cent. “They’ve given it their all and what they’ve gotten is Bill 124 in Ontario,” Doris Greenspoon, head of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, told CFRA on Thursday. “That’s why they’re leaving Ontario.” He added that many nurses sacrificed their vacations, days off and time with their family in order to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. “Nurses are exhausted. They’re exhausted,” Greenspoon said. In January, Ontario Premier Doug Ford came under fire from health workers for announcing he would add hospital beds to meet patient needs without saying how he would staff them. He is calling for more federal funding to help hire workers, as is BC Premier John Horgan, who said Wednesday the only solution to the national understaffing problem is more money from the federal government.
