Adding flu season surge capacity to hospitals will not resolve hallway health care
On a day that the government announced it would address hallway health care, its officials ordered Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario (RNAO) staff to leave the media conference, stranding President Angela Cooper Brathwaite in a hallway at Queen’s Park.
The exclusion of the RNAO is distressing and leaves frontline nurses unsure of the government’s plans.
Premier Doug Ford and Health Minister Christine Elliott announced $90 million in funding to staff 1,100 beds, of which more than 640 beds would be new to add surge capacity during the flu season. “These beds should be permanent additions and not just for the winter, or the announcement goes no farther than the stop gap measure done for the past two years by the previous Liberal government,” Brathwaite says.
RNAO says the $90 million to add beds falls far short of the $187 million the Kathleen Wynne government promised to spend in the 2018-2019 budget year before losing power in the June provincial election.
When it comes to beds at acute care hospitals, the numbers are just the starting point: Who cares for those extra patients is critically important. In all of Canada, Ontario has the fewest registered nurses (RN) per population, a gap that creates peril for patients.
The association says any new RN hires should be permanent and full-time to ensure the continuity of care that patients need and deserve. And those permanent positions will attract new Ontario nursing graduates to stay here rather than leave for other jurisdictions like the United States.
“RNAO has long advocated for more RNs as outlined in its Mind the Safety Gap report. Today’s announcement is an opportunity for the government to begin closing the gap by staffing those new beds with RNs,” says RNAO CEO Doris Grinspun.
RNAO also urges the province to focus not only on hallway health care but on the importance of primary care and home care to promote health and prevent disease. The lack of primary and community care in Ontario hinders health care and leaves far too many patients with no choice but to seek help in acute care hospitals that are routinely overcrowded.
“We can’t stop hallway health care if we only look for solutions in hospitals,” says Grinspun. “The government must do more to prevent disease and treat it earlier in the community. Primary care is central to a high performing and effective health system, and nurses look very much forward to additional announcements on this front.”
RNAO is the professional association representing registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and nursing students in Ontario. Since 1925, RNAO has advocated for healthy public policy, promoted excellence in nursing practice, increased nurses’ contribution to shaping the healthcare system, and influenced decisions that affect nurses and the public they serve. For more information about RNAO, visit RNAO.ca or follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
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