It has been over a year since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Ontario on January 25, 2020. A lot has happened since then, and a lot has changed because of the pandemic. While Ontarians and nurses saw some reprieve from the virus over the summer months, including an easing of many of the public health measures put in place in the spring, the fall and cooling temperatures brought climbing case counts. Now, as Ontario grapples with another, more severe wave of COVID-19, the government is again in a state of “all-hands-on-deck.”
There are some things, including several priorities and recommendations that WeRPN has advocated for, that we have seen government move on since the legislature resumed in September. We expect to see evolution during the Spring Legislative session.
Ontario Budget
The 2020 provincial Budget was tabled in November after being postponed from last March due to COVID-19. The November budget was highly focused on the pandemic and confirmed expectations that the sectors most impacted– hospitals, long-term care, and public health – would be the focus for government investment. Health care, always top of mind for Ontarians, was vaulted to the center of the political landscape, as the Budget prioritized the COVID-19 response.
Despite the delay in tabling its 2020 Budget, we expect the government to keep to its usual timeline with a spring Budget in March 2021. We also expect that the forthcoming Budget will remain focused on initiatives that respond to or are at least seen to respond to the ongoing pandemic. In particular, we expect that big issues like vaccine rollout, testing, long-term care, and others will remain front-and-center.
Long-Term Care
One of the most notable new commitments in the 2020 Budget was to move, over four years, toward an average of four hours of direct care per resident per day in long-term care. In December, government announced that it would commit $1.9B annually by 2024-25 to what it has labelled its “historic” long-term care staffing plan to achieve the four-hour standard. Ontario claims it will be the first jurisdiction in the country to reach this standard.
In its plan, the government recognized that achieving this average will require a focused and sustained commitment to recruiting and retaining staff, an issue that challenged
the sector for decades and greatly contributed to the staffing shortages tragically exposed by COVID-19. The new staffing plan focuses on six key areas of action to be delivered over four years:
- Investing up to $1.9 billion annually by 2024-25 to create more than 27,000 new positions for registered practical nurses, registered nurses, and personal support workers in long-term care to meet the direct care commitment; in addition, providing a 20 percent increase in direct care time administered by other health care professionals such as physiotherapists and social workers.
- Accelerating and expanding education and training pathways to prepare the tens of thousands of new staff required.
- Supporting continued professional development and growth of long-term care staff to improve retention. Improving working conditions for staff by coordinating with long-term care employers to increase full-time employment and promote innovative approaches to work and technology.
- Driving effective and accountable leadership in homes across the province to improve oversight, guidance, and medical outcomes in long-term care homes.
- Measuring progress against key performance indicators.
Many of the above areas of action are consistent with what WeRPN has been advocating for years. In particular, support for continued professional development and accelerating and expanding education pathways for nurses – through programs that WeRPN is successfully administering.
The government admits that recruiting and training enough staff to fulfill this commitment will be a major challenge requiring cooperation across the sector. As such, there is likely to be strong interest from the government in innovative and ready-made solutions. WeRPN is eager to work alongside our partners in health care and government to bring these changes to the long-term care sector.
College Degree Granting
On February 11, 2020, the government announced changes to offer greater choice for nursing students by permitting colleges and universities to offer Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) degree programs on a stand-alone basis. For colleges, this will be the first time they would be able to offer the BScN degree independently of a university partner.
In the fall, the College of Nurses of Ontario (CNO) submitted regulations that would allow nurses who studied at colleges independent of a university partner’s credentials to be fully recognized for review. In December, these CNO-submitted regulations were approved, which will officially allow BScN holders from an approved college to apply to the CNO to become RNs.
The approval of the CNO-submitted regulations is a final – but essential – step that will enable graduates of these programs to be fully recognized and granted registration to practice and become fully licensed RN. The ability for colleges to grant nursing degrees is something WeRPN long advocated for to create more opportunities and pathways for students to achieve their BScN. We are pleased to see this change in regulations be approved.
COVID-19 Vaccine Roll-Out
Ontario’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout began on December 14, 2020, with the province recognizing its long-term care sector – both residents and staff – as a priority group to receive the initial supply of vaccines.
While the vaccine has certainly brought new hope, its rollout has been anything but smooth. At the outset, we knew that supply would be a challenge as the whole world put in bids to receive doses of the few available vaccines. Now, Pfizer has slowed production to make upgrades to their facility in Belgium, which has set in motion an international shortage, leaving Canada’s vaccine deliveries cut in half with up to 400,000 doses delayed.
The temporary shortage has forced the province to pump the breaks on their vaccine rollout plans, prolonging the time between vaccinations and, in some cases, turning people away from new vaccine appointments.
While this is a significant concern for the province and the Premier, the federal government insists that the country’s long-term vaccine rollout is still on track to vaccinate 35 million Canadians by the end of September. Even if Canada does not approve any more vaccines by the fall, estimates suggest that doses from Pfizer and Modern will cover 13 million Canadians, or 34 percent, by June and 36 million, or 95 percent, by September 30.
There is, however, some promising news for new vaccines on the horizon. The AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have now also been approved, and on February 2, Prime Minister Trudeau confirmed that Canada signed a tentative deal with Novavax to produce vaccines here in Canada if it is approved for use.
