Five things experts say could ease pressures on Ontario's health-care system
Temporary emergency room closures and increased wait times have become increasingly common in Ontario as the province's health-care system grapples with staffing shortages.
Premier Doug Ford has acknowledged that more can be done to ease health-system pressures, but his throne speech this week fell short of offering solutions to the problem.
Experts and advocates are making suggestions as to what could help Ontario's overburdened health system.
They include scrapping the law known as Bill 124 -- which caps wage increases for public sector contracts at one per cent a year for three years as well as training and registering more health care workers.
They also call for the province to build publicly funded, stand-alone health centres that can perform less complex outpatient surgeries and procedures, improve work conditions for staff and implement a national system to track staffing levels at different health-care institutions to ensure that there is a balanced distribution of the workforce and prevent service disruptions.
The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario says mental health support, mentorship and good leadership in conjunction with adequate compensation will in aid retention, as nurses contend with nearly three years of pandemic exhaustion combined with the rising cost of living.
The Ontario Medical Association says 22 million patient services were delayed over the course of the pandemic, 10 million of which were surgeries and cancer screening procedures.
It says that backlog is contributing to the strain being felt in emergency departments, which could be eased by separate health centres performing the outpatient procedures.
(The Canadian Press)
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.
Toronto family doctor who called patient's body 'perfect' suspended for 3 months: tribunal
A family doctor in Toronto has been suspended for three months after a disciplinary tribunal found that he failed to follow proper protocols while examining a patient's breasts and made inappropriate comments about her body.
Freddie Mercury's home is on the market for first time since 1980 minus his 'exquisite clutter'
Freddie Mercury's sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century -- minus his "exquisite clutter."
'The lost season': Winter comes to a close as Canada's warmest on record
The warmest winter on record could have far-reaching effects on everything from wildfire season to erosion, climatologists say, while offering a preview of what the season could resemble in the not-so-distant future unless steps are taken to cut greenhouse gas emissions.