Canada's nurses are putting patients first in federal election campaign: UNA president

For immediate release: Monday, May 11, 2015

Eight provincial nurses’ unions including United Nurses of Alberta, will register as third-party advertisers in the expected federal election as Canada’s nurses get ready to stand up for the country’s health care system throughout the campaign.

The eight unions are all affiliates of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) concerned with the federal government’s plan to cut $36 billion from Canada’s public health care system over 10 years. 

“The needs of health care services are increasing, especially as our population ages, yet budget cuts make it impossible to answer those needs,” said CFNU President Linda Silas. “We cannot wait any longer to take a stand and defend our country’s health care system. 

“The voting decisions Albertans made on May 5 were influenced by their support for protecting and enhancing public health care,” said UNA President Heather Smith. “All federal parties need to pay attention to what happened in Alberta and the priority voters everywhere in Canada assign to their health care system.”

“A situation cannot be allowed to continue in which the need for health care services continues to increase, especially as our population ages, but budget cuts make it impossible to answer those needs,” she said. “Alberta alone will lose more than $4-billion in funding over the decade,” she said.

The CFNU says the three areas most important to Canada’s health care system are developing a safe seniors strategy, creating and implementing a national pharmacare policy, and protecting nurses and other health care workers with a safe staffing strategy. 

“Canadians pay more for prescription drugs than nearly every other developed country, our seniors don’t have access to the care they need, and nurses are working millions of overtime hours each year, while assaults against health care workers rise,” Silas said.

The CFNU hopes that as Canadians celebrate the success of nurses during National Nursing Week, May 11-17, they will push the discussion forward on treating front-line health care workers fairly.

Smith said UNA supports the CFNU effort because health care is not just a provincial issue. “We understand that health care funds to make a national system possible come to all provinces via Ottawa, and the federal government needs to make health care a priority so that Canadians everywhere can expect the same quality health care services they deserve.”

Silas added that CFNU is using National Nursing Week to demand federal leadership on strengthening Canada’s health care system and securing the safety of all Canadians because “our nurses work on the front lines of Canada’s health care facilities and witness daily the effects of the cuts we’re already facing.”

“To cut further would be a tragedy,” Silas said. “Long wait times and hospital beds filled with patients waiting to be moved elsewhere are only the beginning. That’s why we need to make health care a priority this election, before things really spiral out of control.”

A full launch of CFNU’s federal election strategy will take place at the CFNU biennial convention in Halifax from June 1-5.

UNA represents approximately 30,000 Registered Nurses and Registered Psychiatric Nurses in Alberta. Through its affiliated unions, CFNU represents close to 200,000 nurses and student nurses in hospitals, long-term care facilities, community health care and Canadians’ homes.

 

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