Horwath will stop the cuts and add nurses in Brampton, starting with 1,321 more nurses

BRAMPTON – NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is committed to taking Brampton from one hospital to three, and staffing up with thousands of nurses, among other health care heroes.

“When your little one is sick, you should be able to take them to a hospital in your community and get help right away. When someone you love has cancer and needs chemotherapy, they shouldn’t have to wait, and shouldn’t have to drive to another community for treatment,” said Horwath, who is back in Brampton again on the eve of the election.

“Together, we can stop the cuts, and finally give Brampton its fair share of health care. Not only are we going to take Brampton from one hospital to three, we’re going to fill those hospitals with the health care workers Brampton needs and deserves.”

Today, Brampton has 47 nurse vacancies at Brampton Civic Hospital, another 43 vacancies in long-term care and other community care settings. After filling those, Andrea Horwath will add at least 1,231 additional nurses for the region over the next three years. She’ll also make staffing up the new hospitals a priority.

Horwath’s plan to recruit, retain and return nurses and other health care heroes includes:

• Expediting recognition of nursing credentials of 15,000 internationally trained nurses so they can get to work in their field faster.
• Scrapping Ford’s low-wage policy Bill 124.
• Creating new jobs for late-career and recently retired nurses to mentor and supervise new hires.
• Addressing violence against health care workers.
• Taking pressure off hospitals with universal mental health care and dental coverage.
• In total, the plan from Horwath and the NDP will add 30,000 nurses across Ontario.

Horwath has also committed and budgeted to take Brampton from one hospital to three — by adding a real 24-hour emergency department and acute care beds at Peel Memorial, and building a brand new standalone hospital. In addition, she’s committed to a dedicated cancer care centre in the city.

Steven Del Duca was part of Kathleen Wynne’s Liberal government that froze hospital budgets and fired 1,600 nurses. Doug Ford was cutting before the pandemic, and has $2.7 billion more cuts planned if he gets four more years.

Ontario has the lowest ratio of RNs to people in Canada — and lost 7,300 nurses in the past decade.

Background

To recruit, retain and return health care workers, the NDP will:

• Increase funding for enrollment in four-year BSc in Nursing programs, Nurse Practitioner seats and bridging programs for nurses to upgrade their certification.
• Create a job-matching program to guarantee jobs for new nurses and local experience for internationally trained health care workers.
• Leverage the knowledge and experience of internationally educated health professionals to offer culturally responsive and appropriate care, for patients more comfortable in a language other than English.
• Dedicate funding to hospitals, long-term care, and home care to train and hire thousands of nurses, PSWs and other health care staff to increase staffing capacity and dedicate more time and attention to each patient.
• Develop and implement a strategy to address violence against health care professionals.
• Ensure well-paid, full-time, or full-time equivalent nursing positions, including establishing a mandate to increase full-time nursing staff in hospitals, long-term care, and home and community care and legislate paid sick days.
• Eliminate Doug Ford’s low-wage policy Bill 124, which prevents nurses and other health care workers from negotiating a fair wage. The NDP is committed to good faith bargaining with the public sector.
• Create new jobs for late-career and recently retired nurses to mentor and supervise nursing students, new nurses, and internationally trained nurses. Facilitating mentorships will also help retain new nurses and prevent high rates of attrition.
• Establish a dedicated and funded Return to Nursing program to attract the over 4,000 nurses who left the profession to come back to Ontario’s health care workforce.

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