OTTAWA—Very few health care associations, groups, or health care unions did not have a voice when health care groups rallied against Canadian premiers to address the country’s health care crisis, today in a news release.
Countless hospitals across the country have expressed concerns about their health care teams, highlighting issues such as staff shortages, work place violence, and health care professionals facing work place burnout from exhaustion. Health care workers across Canada are overwhelmed.
The Canadian Medical Association (CMA), Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU), Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and HealthCareCAN are calling on Canada's premiers to make health care their top priority at the Council of the Federation's 2022 Summer Meeting of Canada's Premiers in Victoria, B.C. "Our health care crisis must be the priority, and an action plan is urgently required," expressed the group.
A news release by these health care groups indicated that CMA President Dr. Katharine Smart and CFNU President Linda Silas will be in Victoria to deliver this message to Canada's premiers at their annual summer meeting, July 11-12.
"We know that fixing the health care system will take time but deferring any tangible action will only deepen the cracks. When a universal health system is not able to provide basic health care needs to Canadians, we must accept that it has failed and work together to fix it. This will take more than simply investing more money. It will require new solutions to old problems such enabling the mobility of health workers between jurisdictions to alleviate pressure points,”stated Dr. Katharine Smart, President, CMA
President, Canadian Federation of Nurses unions, (CAN), Linda Silas, listed key issues faced by health care professionals not only because of a global pandemic that resulted in nurses, doctors and all hospital front line workers facing extremely overwhelming working conditions, but also the fact that in her opinion, the health care worker shortage that exists today is nothing new. It in her opinion this has been the case for over a decade. The solutions offered by the Canadian government in the past just are not working in the health care climate that exists today.
"Canada needs to ramp up its health care system to deliver better outcomes for patients and ensure they can receive the care they need when they need it. However, that cannot be achieved if we don't strengthen and invest in our health workforce first. Retaining nurses and other health care workers is at the heart of fixing many challenges of our system. If no effective strategies are put in place to retain nurses that we have now and implement better working conditions, no other strategy will make the difference,” said Sylvain Brousseau, President, CAN
Canada’s health care system continues to face challenges that seem insurmountable at best. Yet the urgency of the problems faced by all Canadians who fear the closure of their local Emergency departments, the loss of their physician from burnout, and the lack of enough health care professionals, such as nurses, and personal support workers, and the diminishing of the quality of care, because of difficult working conditions their health care provider faces, is for many a daily concern.
According to Paul-mile Cloutier, President and CEO, HealthCareCAN, "Canada healthcare system is confronted with a difficult test, we will not be able to tackle the multi-faceted challenges faced by Canada's health system without all levels of government coming together with health leaders to define and build an inclusive, equitable and safe health system that works for all in the 21st century. Most urgent of all these challenges is the health workforce shortage, which is placing unrelenting pressure on the system and healthcare workers, and negatively impacting access to services, quality of care and health outcomes. We support the premiers' and territory leaders' calls for more funding through health transfers, however we must ensure that whatever approach is taken leads to improved health outcomes,” stated Cloutier.
