Canada's Nurses Commend NDP on Continuing Strong Stand for Public Health Care

OTTAWA, ON--(Marketwired - September 14, 2015) - Canada's Nurses are again commending the New Democratic Party of Canada for committing to public health care.

Following yesterday's $1.8 billion commitment to new health care funding for seniors over the next 4 years, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) applauds today's announcement by the NDP to invest $300 million to build 200 community health clinics, and help provinces hire 7,000 health care professionals, including nurses and nurse practitioners. The NDP also signalled that more health care plans were forthcoming along with full costing.

For decades Canada's Nurses have been calling for investments in primary health care, including more community health centers. It is critical that nurse practitioners and nurses are included in this model alongside physicians and other health care professionals.

In a recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, Canada ranked last among the 11 OECD countries in terms of timeliness of care. Earlier Commonwealth Fund International Health Policy Surveys regularly show that Canadians are least likely to report being able to have same‐day access and are more likely to report long waits than the other countries surveyed. The CFNU believes today's NDP announcement would improve Canada's accessibility ranking, providing more timely care for Canadians.

"The CFNU will continue monitoring health care commitments in this election campaign and is calling on all political leaders to put forward their vision for health care, along with concrete commitments," said CFNU president Linda Silas. "With five weeks remaining before Canadians head to the polls, we need to know where each party stands on the number one issue for voters, health care."

The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) is Canada's largest nurses' organization representing nearly 200,000 nurses and student nurses. The CFNU has been advocating for national discussions on key health priorities, such as a national prescription drug plan, a comprehensive approach to long-term and continuing care, greater attention to health human resources, and federal government engagement on the future of public health care.