Singh calls for fix to nursing crisis in Hamilton

Plea timed to line up with health care deal negotiations

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is challenging the prime minister to do something about hundreds of vacant nursing jobs in Hamilton.

The call out on Friday was timed days before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was set to host a meeting with the premiers in Ottawa on Tuesday to finalize a deal on healthcare funding.

“Justin Trudeau has to ensure that we’re training, recruiting, retaining and respecting nurses, so families here in Hamilton, and people all over the country, have the care they need,” Singh said in a statement.

The federal NDP says Hamilton is short 700 nurses, using data on job vacancies released by Statistics Canada on Dec. 19.

However, that number is likely a vast underestimate as Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) alone reported 700 vacant nursing jobs in November. For all jobs, HHS had more than 1,400 vacancies at that time, up from 750 in September 2021.

The local shortage is so bad that HHS took the unprecedented step in August of temporarily paying nurses double to work outside of their regularly scheduled shifts.

“Here in Hamilton, people are seeing first-hand how frustrating it

is that both provincial and federal governments have failed to hire the nurses and other health-care workers we all depend on,” NDP Hamilton Centre MP Matthew Green said in a statement.

Health-care workers and their patients are at the “very centre” of the ongoing health deal negotiations, said Guillaume Bertrand, spokesperson for federal Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos.

“We share the deep concerns of Canadians regarding the significant challenges our health system is experiencing and we recognize that urgent actions are required to address the current health workers crisis,” Bertrand said in a statement. “We are having very productive discussions with the province of Ontario. We expect an agreement that will deliver better outcomes for patients and health-care workers, including nurses.”

The Ontario government announced its plan to improve the health-care system on Thursday. It included expanding the role of pharmacists, creating more youth wellness hubs, expanding team models of primary care, increasing the number of surgical procedures and diagnostic imaging done at private clinics, giving paramedics more flexibility to treat people outside of hospitals and building more long-term-care beds.

When it comes to staff shortages, the plan is to expand medical schools, increase training opportunities and make it easier for health care workers from other provinces to practise in Ontario. The province has also streamlined registration for those trained internationally.

“When it comes to your health and the health of all Ontarians, the status quo isn’t working,” Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones said in a statement. “As we put our bold plan into action, you will be connected to care when you need it most and where it’s most convenient.”

However, the Ontario Nurses’ Association (ONA) said the plan has “glaring omissions.”

“It is missing action to retain nurses currently working in the system or tools to ensure new nurses have the supports they need to remain.,” the union said in a statement.

The provincial NDP called on the Progressive Conservative government to drop its appeal of an Ontario Superior Court ruling that struck down Bill 124 as unconstitutional. The provincial legislation limits pay for public sector workers.

“We need to end Bill 124 and implement a massive staff recruitment and retention plan, ensuring workers are respected and paid fairly,” Ontario NDP Health critic, France Gélinas said in a statement.

The federal NDP leader said the staffing shortages are contributing to increasing backlogs in the system. Hamilton’s hospitals had a waiting list of nearly 15,000 surgeries as of March 2022. At least 50 per cent have been waiting longer than what is considered optimal compared to 13 per cent before the pandemic.

McMaster Children’s Hospital alone had a backlog of 2,332 surgeries as of January, with about 60 per cent of kids failing to get their surgery within the optimal window recommended to ensure there are no lifelong consequences for development.

During a surge of viral illness from October to December, emergency department waits at McMaster shot up to as high as 13 hours at times.

“New Democrats envision a public health-care system that’s always ready when and where you need it,” said Singh. “When your little one is sick or when your mom needs surgery, we count on nurses being there for us. But that’s not what’s happening now. Wait times for care are months long when they should be days long. ERs are swamped. The only thing that will solve the health-care crisis is more public health-care workers.”