Long-Term Care Standards can’t sit on a shelf: Dr. Sinha

This edition of Health files covers reaction to the release of the Long-Term Care Standards, the NDP’s anti-privatization push and nurses’ concerns over poaching.

Long-Term Care Standards can’t sit on a shelf

“This is very much a kind of all-or-nothing thing. This is basically what the standard of care needs to be. My greatest fear is that if we don’t take these standards to heart and make sure that they are the basis of inspections, enforcements, quality improvements and accountability … I’m worried that these standards will just sit on the shelf,” stated Dr. Samir Sinha, director of geriatrics at Sinai Health and the University Health Network in Toronto and chair of the Health Standards Organization (HSO) technical committee that drafted the National Long-Term Care Standards, to CBC News, Jan. 31, 2023.

NDP Leader wants PM to be clearly against privatization

“We think the federal government should be making it very clear that the solution to the current health-care crisis will not come from a privatization, for-profit delivery of care. It’ll only come by making sure we hire, recruit, retain and respect health care. Health care is already dramatically understaffed, and for-profit facilities will poach doctors and nurses — cannibalizing hospitals, forcing people to wait longer in pain and racked with anxiety,” said Jagmeet Singh to CTV/Canadian Press, Jan. 30, 2023

Polls say Liberals’ future may hang on health care

“The Liberals must get health care right. Getting health care wrong would be a significant setback for them, because the reality is that most Canadians believe that parties like the Liberals and the New Democrats are strong on health care. If a narrative emerged that the Liberals were allowing the undermining of public health care, the likelihood of an election increases,” stated Nik Nanos, chief data scientists for Nanos Research, to Hill Times, Jan. 30, 2023

Canadian Nurses Association: Focus on retaining, not poaching nurses from other provinces

“We know that nurses are facing inadequate working conditions, and that is the main reason many are leaving their jobs. If working conditions and retention are not the focus, the new nurses recruited from other provinces may find themselves wanting to leave their jobs. Thirty years ago on surgery, I had six patients during the day, seven to eight on the evening shift and 12 on night shift, and now it’s 15 during the day in surgery in some places, or 10. This is too much,” said Sylvain Brosseau, president, Canadian Nurses Association, to The Canadian Press, Jan. 27, 2023

Letter writer agrees poaching from elsewhere not the answer

“The answer is not to steal health-care workers from elsewhere, but to offer better working conditions and pay. This could encourage new doctors, nurses, and other accredited health-care professionals to enter the field and current staff to stay working in the field,” wrote Rick Lauber, author of Caregiver’s Guide for Canadians in the Toronto Star Letters to the Editor, Jan. 29, 2023

MUN’s nursing students worried about the future

“When we go onto a floor and see that they’re operating with half their staff and everyone is stressed, and we hear about people leaving left and right, it’s scary. Why would I stay here instead of moving somewhere with more reasonable working conditions?” stated Brooke Simms, the nursing representative on Memorial University of Newfoundland’s students’ union, CBC Newfoundland-Labrador, Jan. 27. 2023

PM says no deals will be signed at meeting with premiers on Feb. 7

“Too many people don’t have access to a family doctor or a nurse practitioner, wait times in emergency rooms across the country, particularly in rural areas, have become dangerously low. Providing money is certainly part of the solution, and we will do that, but funding alone won’t solve the issues that we’re seeing,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Global News, Jan. 30, 2023