Ontario NDP health-care critic France Gélinas continues to hammer the provincial Conservative government over the issue of hiring for-profit agency nurses at a time when there is a critical shortage of nurses.
Gélinas raised the issue in the Ontario legislature Monday.
Gélinas has previously outlined her concern that highly-paid agency nurses are being used to fill the increasing gaps in the shortage of nurses in hospitals and long-term care homes.
"Ontario is facing a health human resources crisis. Whether we look at emergency room closures, at the 2.2 million Ontarians who don’t have access to primary care, or the long wait lists for surgery, it is getting worse, not better. Does the Minister believe that nursing agencies are part of the solution to Ontario’s health human resources crisis?”
Ontario health minister Sylvia Jones responded to Gélinas by quoting a new report that said Ontarians "had the highest percentage of people with a regular health-care provider at 90.6 per cent," said Jones.
"We can do more and we are doing more," she added. Jones said Ontario continues to make investments in health care and that the government plan is working.
In a supplementary question, Gélinas said the agency nursing system has "exploded" in every part of Ontario
“In order to have quality care you need continuity of care, with nursing agencies there is no continuity, they affect quality of care," said Gélinas.
"They poach health care professionals from our hospitals, from our health-care system to go work in nursing agencies. They charge up to $300 an hour plus signing bonuses for a nurse who will get not even a third of that, who usually makes $39 an hour," Gélinas added.
"What is this government doing about the multiple problems created throughout our health care system directly linked to nursing agencies?" she asked.
Jones responded by telling Gélinas that "facts matter" and claimed that Ontario is actually using fewer agency nurses. Regardless, said Jones, the more important issue is that more people are coming forward to work in the nursing profession.
Jones said she had no intention of removing what she said was a very important tool for hospitals, for long-term care, and for home care to make sure that those facilities have the staff they need to continue functioning.