OTTAWA, Aug. 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — As households in communities throughout the nation face closures of emergency departments, hospitals, intensive care models and birthing centres, Canada’s unions are demanding fast motion from Canada’s leaders to handle this well being care disaster.
Bea Bruske, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, has written to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanding he name an emergency First Ministers’ assembly and reconvene parliament in an effort to urgently shore up our public well being care system.
“Parents shouldn’t live in worry that they take their child to Emergency only to find it shuttered. Our crumbling public health care system is facing a crisis that requires leadership from all levels of government,” warned Bruske. “This starts with the PM and every premier coming together, working alongside health care professionals, to make sure people can access the care they need.”
Bruske identified that when the political will is there, fast motion is feasible. Canada developed a COVID response plan and had new applications up and working in weeks.
“Despite the fact health care workers have been warning us for years about chronic underfunding and a coming staffing crisis, governments failed to act. Then COVID-19 revealed to everyone just how unprepared we were for a crisis,” continued Bruske. “Let’s take the right lessons away from the pandemic and come together, across party lines and at all levels of government, to solve this crisis.”
Bruske added that it’s important that the voices and experiences of frontline nurses and different well being staff – who’re burning out in file numbers – are on the centre of measures governments convey ahead. This should begin with provinces reversing legal guidelines that took away bargaining rights from well being staff.
“Canadians have long expressed their pride for Canada’s universal public health care system. But instead of supporting the workers who deliver this care to Canadians, some governments passed Draconian laws that took away their rights and cut their pay,” concluded Bruske. “Governments must now work collaboratively with health workers on lasting solutions that build a more resilient public health care system.”
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