QUEEN’S PARK — MPP Mike Schreiner released the following statement in response to new polling that shows 60 percent of registered practical nurses are considering leaving the profession due to poor working conditions.
“When will the Premier admit that Ontario’s healthcare crisis won’t be resolved until he treats nurses with the respect they deserve?
Ontario’s nurses are overworked and underpaid. They’re struggling with depression, burnout, and over half of them dread going to work every day.
Now, we’ve learned that 60 percent of RPNs are considering leaving the profession because of the poor working conditions.
We cannot afford to lose any more healthcare workers.
Yet this government continues to turn a blind eye and double down on backwards legislation like Bill 124, which suppresses wages for nurses and frontline healthcare workers.
If the Premier truly wanted to solve the healthcare staffing crisis, he would be doing everything in his power to improve the working conditions of nurses and address this crisis immediately.
We do not need any more empty words from this government. I am calling on the Premier to:
- Immediately drop the government’s appeal of Bill 124
- Provide guaranteed access to mental health services for all nurses
- Implement a nurse retention strategy that includes permanent raises and better benefits and working conditions for all healthcare workers
- Immediately halt their plan to allow for-profit private clinics to carry out routine surgeries, which will take nurses and doctors away from the public system.”