Hundreds of nurses rally outside Ontario hospitals to demand safer staffing levels

Hundreds of nurses rallied outside several Ontario hospitals on Thursday to demand that CEOs improve staffing levels across the province.

The Ontario Nurses' Association (ONA), which represents 68,000 registered nurses, health care professionals and student affiliates, said it wants hospital leaders to implement registered nurse-to-patient staffing ratios to ensure quality of care. Such ratios represent the maximum number of patients that can be cared for by one nurse in a particular hospital unit.

"Safe staffing saves lives and it makes your nurses want to stay," said Liz Romano, an intensive care nurse at Toronto General Hospital for nearly 45 years and bargaining unit president for the ONA at Toronto General and Toronto Western Hospitals.

"We're rallying here today to bring to the public the importance of mandatory nurse-patient ratios. Mandatory nurse-patient ratios mean safe patient care."

Romano said nurse-to-patient staffing ratios reduce the rates of patient complications and death and increase nurse retention and recruitment. She said the ONA would like to see 1:4 nurse-patient ratios in acute surgery and medical floors and 1:1 nurse-patient ratios in intensive care units. She added that the union wants to see the ratios in its contract.

Erin Ariss, provincial president of the ONA, said in an interview that Ontario currently has no nurse-to-patient ratios in its hospitals and has a shortage of 25,000 registered nurses. She said nurse-to-patient ratios are also about improving workloads.

"We want every patient to have the appropriate amount of nursing care so that they receive the best care," Ariss said.

According to the ONA, its "all-out" hospital rallies were to be held at 26 locations in Ontario, a number that included nine locations in Toronto.

The rallies come as negotiations between the nurses and the Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) for a new collective agreement go to binding arbitration next month. Talks broke down in February.

In a news release on Thursday, the ONA said ratios are the main bargaining demand of its hospital members.

Nurses want safe working conditions: Schreiner

Green Party of Ontario Leader Mike Schreiner, who spoke at a rally outside Toronto General Hospital, said he attended the rally to show solidarity with the nurses.

"Health care workers are overworked and under-appreciated, many are burning out, and the result is that hallway health care continues to worsen across the province," Schreiner said. 

"It's time to put people over profits in health care, stop the privatization and care for the workers who care for us." 

Schreiner said the nurses want safe working conditions and the province needs to fund health care properly. He added that nurse to patient ratios are critical to the care that patients receive in hospitals.

Hospitals want 'realistic' agreement, association says

Kirk LeMessurier, spokesperson for the OHA, said in an email on Thursday that the association is seeking an agreement with the ONA that "supports patient care, is realistic considering hospital funding realities and recognizes the importance of using innovation, partnerships and technology to revolutionize care in Ontario." He did not comment on the issue of nurse-to-patient ratios. 

"Hospitals make safe staffing decisions and continuously adapt these to changing patient care needs. These important decisions require daily flexibility and rely on interprofessional teams, including registered nurses (RNs) as well as other health care professionals, working to their full scope of practice," LeMessurier said.

"Ontario's hospitals are managing complex financial and operational pressures, rapid population growth and an aging population as well as preparing for the projected further increases in patient care demands."

Hannah Jensen, spokesperson for Ontario Health Minister Sylvia Jones, said in an email on Thursday that the province has made record investments in health care since 2018.

"For the third year in a row, we have registered a record number of new nurses, adding a total of 50,000 new nurses, with another 30,000 studying nursing at one of Ontario's Colleges or Universities," Jensen said.

"To continue to support and grow our nursing workforce, we have broken down barriers for internationally and interprovincially educated nurses, removed financial barriers for nurses wanting to upskill, and expanded the Learn and Stay grant to provide eligible students in nursing with funding for tuition, books, and other costs," Jensen said.