The Province is collaborating with the College of Nurses and Ontario Health to deploy internationally educated nurses to long term care homes and hospitals in need of staffing support
That today from Christine Elliott, Ontario’s minister of health, who updated on the Province’s health system capacity amidst the ongoing pandemic.
“Expanding opportunities for internationally educated nurses is just one more way Ontario is bolstering its healthcare workforce,” she said.
More than 1200 applicants have already expressed interest and the matching process with hospitals is set to start later this week.
Elliott adds that the Province has also invested $5.1 billion to add 3100 additional care beds to the healthcare systems for a total of 17,000 medical-surgical beds.
Ontario now has nearly 2500 intensive care unit beds, she said.
The health minister adds that the Province is learning more about the omicron variant.
She said the median stay is 7 days in intensive care units for patients with omicron, as opposed to 20 days for patients during the peak of Delta.
Currently, 600 ICU beds remain available in Ontario with the ability to add 500 additional beds if required, she said.
Through additional investments, the province also now has a total of 2,436 adult and pediatric ICU beds.
“More than ever, this wave of the pandemic will require us to work as a system, ensuring we utilize all of our provincial resources to meet the needs of patients,” said Matthew Anderson, President & CEO of Ontario Health. “We are working closely with hospital and health care partners to maintain and protect capacity across the system.”
These ongoing initiatives build on the government’s commitment as part of the 2021 Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review: Build Ontario to invest $342 million over the next five years through immediate and longer-term recruitment initiatives which would add over 13,000 workers to Ontario’s health care system. This includes over 5,000 new and upskilled registered nurses and registered practical nurses as well as 8,000 personal support workers.
“The pandemic has highlighted the need for more staff on the front lines of our health care system,” said Peter Bethlenfalvy, Minister of Finance. “Our government committed to spare no expense in the fight against the pandemic to protect people’s health and the economy, which is why investing in the front lines of our health care system was one of the key pillars of our plan to Build Ontario.”