“We absolutely can help people get care faster. We can staff up, so instead of rushing patient to patient, working double-shifts and endless overtime, Ontario’s world-class nurses have the time to be there when you need them.” – Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath
Horwath and the NDP will add 30,000 nurses in Ontario
News from Ontario’s New Democratic Party
Posted May 23rd, 2022 on Niagara At Large
Ontario NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, file photo
NIAGARA and TORONTO – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath will fill the 50 empty nursing jobs in Niagara Region hospitals and hire an additional 800 nurses in her first term so Niagara families get the care they need faster.
“When your mom is in the hospital, you want to know that a nurse is at her bedside. When your little one is inconsolable, you want a health care professional to take a look right away. Families aren’t asking for the moon and the stars — we all just want the best care for our loved ones, as quick as possible,” said Horwath.
“The good news is, we absolutely can help people get care faster. We can staff up, so instead of rushing patient to patient, working double-shifts and endless overtime, Ontario’s world-class nurses have the time to be there when you need them.”
Horwath and the NDP will add 30,000 nurses in Ontario with a strategy to recruit, retain and return nurses. Under that plan, Niagara’s hospitals, clinics and long-term care facilities would see 800 new nurses, on top of filling the 50 vacant nursing jobs in the area today.
That strategy starts with:
* Expediting recognition of nursing credentials of 15,000 internationally trained nurses so they can get to work in their field faster.
* Creating new jobs for late-career and recently retired nurses in supervisory and mentorship roles.
* Implementing a funded Return to Nursing program to bring back the over 4,000 nurses who have left the profession.
* Scrapping Ford’s low-wage policy Bill 124 and increasing health care workers’ wages.
* Developing and implementing a strategy to address violence against health care professionals.
Horwath and the NDP are fully committed to funding and building the South Niagara Hospital, and preserving both the Fort Erie urgent care centre and the Welland Hospital — including its round-the-clock emergency department.
For years, Liberal and Conservative governments have cut health care and fired nurses. Ontario has lost over 7,300 nurses in the last decade, and now has the lowest ratio of RNs in Canada.
After the Liberals froze hospital budgets for years and fired 1,600 nurses, the Ford Conservatives capped the pay of nurses below inflation with Bill 124 — putting Ontario into a cycle of exhausted, burnt out and disrespected nurses leaving, exacerbating the shortstaffing challenges. An Ontario Nurses’ Association survey shows a whopping 80 per cent of registered nurses feel overworked and underpaid.
Horwath and the NDP will turn that around, investing $632 million on nursing recruitment and retention over three years, starting with $198 million in year one.
“The crowded waiting rooms, the long delays to get the appointments you need, and the lack of beds for surgeries — at the heart of it are the Liberal and Conservative cuts that forced out thousands and thousands of nurses. It doesn’t have to be this way,” said Horwath. “If you want to fix health care, I want you to know that together we can do it. We can elect a government that stops the cuts, and fixes health care.”
News from the NDP’s Niagara candidates on this pledge –
May 22, 2022
NDP’s Niagara team says NDP’s announcement critical to fixing local health care
NIAGARA – The NDP’s Niagara team Wayne Gates (Niagara Falls), Jeff Burch (Niagara Centre), Jennie Stevens (St. Catharines) and Dave Augustyn (Niagara West) said that the NDP’s plan to invest in health care in the region will mean that families will get the care they need faster.
From left to right, Niagara Centre NDP incumbent Jeff Burch, Niagara Falls NDP incumbent Wayne Gates and St. Catharines NDP incumbent Jennie Stevens. file photo
On Sunday, May 22nd Andrea Horwath announced that an NDP government would hire 850 nurses in Niagara, build the South Niagara Hospital and fully preserve the Welland hospital, including the emergency department, the Port Colborne Urgent Care Centre and the Fort Erie Urgent Care Centre.
“Folks in Niagara Falls deserve to have reliable health care in their community. That’s why the new South Niagara Hospital is a top priority for us. We’re going to build the new hospital and hire enough nurses and other staff to make sure our community has the services it needs. That way we’ll never again face dangerous situations where low staffing forces hospitals to close, like what happened with Fort Erie urgent care,” said Gates. “No more empty promises from the Liberals and Conservatives, this time around an NDP government will get the new hospital built.”
Dave Augustyn, NDP candidate for Niagara West Riding
“Niagara is growing and we need to keep building capacity in our health care system. We’re going to make sure both the Welland Hospital, with its 24-hour emergency department, and the Port Colborne Urgent Care Centre stay open, and that they have enough staff to make sure no one waits hours for care,” said Burch. “Niagara families are counting on their government to make sure health care is available when they need it. An NDP government will keep building capacity here, without sacrificing the Welland Hospital or any other important services.”
“No one wants to go into the ER with their sick child and wait for hours. No one wants to wait months in pain for the surgery they need. Families are just asking for the basics – that their local hospitals and health care will be there when they need it,” said Stevens. “That’s why we’re going to invest in health care and hire 850 more nurses, to go into every community across Niagara. With the NDP, families can rest assured care will always be available and easy to access.”
“We can have a health care system that works here in Niagara. Where you can see a doctor or nurse promptly, and they actually have the time to provide the care you need, rather than rushing from patient to patient. That’s what’s possible when you invest in health care instead of making cuts,” said Augustyn. “ On the doorsteps, people are telling me that they want a government that will invest in their lives and fix our local hospitals – that’s what you get with Andrea Horwath and the NDP.”
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Sounds great BUT, where are they going to find them? Even before, but especially since COVID, nurses are retiring or changing their profession in droves. Oh, let’s just go out and pull a few hundred off the street.
Doesn’t everyone want a job that gets so little respect, has to work long day and night shifts including those things many others get like weekends and holidays, suffer physical harm both intentionally (from confused, drugged, inebriated or mentally ill patients) and unintentionally from lifting (often with no one to help them), exposure to pathogens, etc. The medical profession, including nurses, is in the top five professions that suffer abuse. Mental health care, one aspect of nursing, being #2.
Few realize the complexity of nursing, particularly in specialized areas, the continuing education required as far as procedures, pharmacology, etc. or the responsibilities they bear.
Who is entrusted with the patient 24/7, monitoring them and alerting the doctor at the earliest sign of danger.
Who is required to give dangerous and life saving drugs and be fully aware of the implications?
It took a pandemic to get them some respect but even then some called them murderers for promoting vaccines, that is until they were on ventilators themselves.
Does it upset me about the lack of respect that GOOD and devoted nurses have traditionally received? That would be “yes”.
There is an immense shortage already and people aren’t beating down the doors to enter the profession. It is facile to say “We’ll hire more nurses”. The government needs to respect the profession and find ways of encouraging more people to enter it. You cannot find what isn’t there.
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