Ontario Nurses' Association

Hospital receives funds for ER nurses

25 Jun 08 -- The province has given Sudbury Regional Hospital $62,500 to help reduce ER wait times by hiring nurses to receive ambulance patients.

ONA Challenges Rouge Valley Lay-Offs

25 Jun 08 -- The Ontario Nurses’ Association’s (ONA), the union representing 54,000 front-line nurses and allied health professionals, has filed an application for judicial review of the decision made by Rouge Valley Health System’s board of directors to close its in-patient mental health facilities at Rouge Valley Ajax Pickering Hospital and eliminate 220 union staff positions – including 72 registered nurses – over the next three years.

“Rouge Valley Health System has unilaterally decided to close beds and lay off registered nurses,” says ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN, “without consulting its fiscal advisory committee. We believe the hospital has failed to follow its obligations under the Public Hospitals Act to consult with the committee and allow it to provide recommendations regarding operations and staffing.”
Regulation 965 of the Public Hospitals Act obliges each hospital to create a fiscal advisory committee (FAC) including at least one staff nurse to provide recommendations to the board regarding the operation, use and staffing of the hospital. The courts have previously held that the purpose of these provisions is to give staff nurses a greater voice in hospital management, as well as to bring cooperation between nursing organizations and hospital management.

While one meeting of Rouge Valley’s FAC was held in 2007, at no time during the meeting was there a review of the decision to cut staff and alter services. The FAC was not given the necessary information to make recommendations to the board regarding those decisions. ONA asserts that the hospital is therefore in violation with the Public Hospitals Act and is asking that the decision to close the mental health beds at Ajax-Pickering and lay off RNs be quashed until the FAC can review the circumstances of the deficit and give informed and meaningful recommendations to the hospital board. A September 19 court date has been set.

“The hospital is facing a deficit of $78 million,” notes Haslam-Stroud. “It has failed in its obligation to consult its own FAC and has instead slashed its nursing staff with no input from staff nurses on the committee. The FAC is in place for a reason, and we believe the hospital board proceeded without statutory authority in approving these closures and cuts without first consulting it.”

Forty-seven registered nurses received lay-off notices from the hospital on May 15 – during Nursing Week celebrations. Though the hospital maintains that patient care and services won’t be affected, RNs are expressing serious concern about the impact on both patients and the nurses remaining.

ONA Challenges Rouge Valley Lay-Offs: Files for Judicial Review of Board Cuts

ONA Disappointed with Sharkey Report

18 Jun 08 -- The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA) is disappointed that the Sharkey Review of long-term care in the province has failed to recommend a regulation requiring a minimum standard of nursing and personal care for residents and failed to ensure an adequate number of registered nurses are there to provide the increasingly complex care that our seniors require.

“The government had promised that a regulation would be passed ensuring a minimum standard of care for the thousands of residents of long-term care,” notes ONA President Linda Haslam-Stroud, RN. “The report has failed to ensure that this promise is kept, and ONA remains extremely concerned that residents may not receive the appropriate number of hours of care from registered nurses that they need.”

ONA will provide input to a new advisory group that will develop local staffing plan templates and provide feedback to the Ontario Health Quality Council, that will be charged with the responsibility of measuring and publicly reporting on quality of care and resident satisfaction and advise on resident care areas.

“Of the 4,500 new nursing and personal support worker positions previously announced for long-term care by the government, none are registered nurse positions,” says Haslam-Stroud. “We know that our long-term care residents are living longer and developing increasingly complex health care needs. To reduce disease and unnecessary deaths, our residents would be well-served by having the skills and experience of registered nurses available as part of their health-care team. It's imperative that this aspect of resident care be addressed quickly.”

ONA Disappointed with Sharkey Report: Review of Long-Term Care Fails to Ensure Minimum Standard of Care

St. Joe's has 'best of worst' wait times

16 Jun 08 -- Along with 22 other poor performers, St. Joseph's Hospital has been targeted for $30 million in special funding aimed at improving ER wait times.

Gay Pride Parade - ONA float

ONA Provincial Coordinators Meeting (PCM)

Video Conference - Harassment Bullying and Mobbing

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Teleconference: New BUP/Grievance Chair Checklist

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