COVID situation will not improve without solutions
Posted Jul 20, 2022 10:00:00 PM.
As COVID-19 continues to surge, the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) fears the situation will worsen if solutions are not implemented soon.
Dr. Doris Grinspun, chief executive officer (CEO) for RNAO, told The Sam Laprade Show on July 20 that indoor masking should return, and people should register to get their next booster vaccine.
“For those that didn’t get vaccinated, there is no better time than now because come the fall, things will become more serious,” she said.
Masks and vaccines are only one part of the solution. Solving the nursing staffing shortage is the other.
Grinspun explained that Bill-124, which the Ford government introduced in 2019, limits the annual salary increases for many public sector jobs, including nursing.
“We are begging the premier to exempt nurses from Bill-124, to let negotiations happen to improve the conditions of compensation of nurses,” she added.
She said that nursing compensation has decreased at a time when their workloads have dramatically increased.
“It cannot continue this way, we need the compensation to improve,” she said.
If it doesn’t improve, she said, more nurses would continue to leave hospitals to find better paying work.
This isn’t just an Ontario specific problem, she added, but a global one. Grinspun said Premier Doug Ford has a “golden opportunity” in his hands, with over 20,000 nurses wanting to work in Ontario, however, the premier must give the regulatory bodies that process the applications a timeline so the backlogs are cleared.
“Nursing is the spinal cord of the system,” she said. “Without nursing, the system crumbles. But the shortfall on staffing is on all the health professions.”
Listen to the full interview with Dr. Doris Grinspun below:
