Summary
Today, Premier Ford and Minister Elliott announce our government is investing $52.5 million to recruit, retain and support over 3,700 more frontline health care workers and caregivers to ensure our health care system can meet any surge in demand, while continuing to provide safe and high-quality care to patients and long-term care residents. This investment is part of the province’s COVID-19 fall preparedness plan, Keeping Ontarians Safe: Preparing for Future Waves of COVID-19.
The Keeping Ontarians Safe plan will:
- Maintain strong public health measures, including continued expansion of testing and case and contact management;
- Quickly identify, manage and prevent COVID-19 outbreaks;
- Accelerate efforts to reduce health service backlogs;
- Prepare for surges in COVID-19 cases;
- Recruit, retain, train and support health care workers, while also continuing to engage families and caregivers; and
- Implement the largest flu immunization campaign in Ontario’s history.
Given the size and complexity of the Keeping Ontarians Safe plan, the province will release details over the coming days.
Key Messages
- It’s the thousands of nurses, personal support workers, and other frontline workers who have made the difference in the fight against COVID-19.
- That’s why our government is investing $52.5 million to recruit, retain and support over 3,700 more frontline health care workers and caregivers to ensure our health care system can meet any surge in demand, while continuing to provide safe and high-quality care to patients and long-term care residents.
- This investment is part of the province’s COVID-19 fall preparedness plan, Keeping Ontarians Safe: Preparing for Future Waves of COVID-19.
- As part of this funding:
- An additional $26.3 million to support personal support workers (PSWs) and supportive care workers including training, recruiting and retaining PSWs and supportive care workers in the home and community care and long-term care sectors;
- An additional $26 million to support nurses, including recruiting and retaining nurses in areas of need across the province like long-term care homes and acute care settings;
- And supporting frontline workers, families, and caregivers by:
- Investing $200,000 to improve the Ontario Matching Portal, to help employers get faster matches that best meet their needs;
- Expanding training, tools, and resources across the social services sector; and
- Continuing to update visitor policies for congregate care settings, including long-term care, that promote family and caregiver involvement to support better care and reduce isolation.
- Through these investments, the province is hiring another 2,000 personal support workers and 800 more nurses to provide quality care to patients and long-term care residents.
- Retaining and increasing the number of frontline health care workers in our continuous fight against COVID-19 is critical. Today’s actions will ensure our frontline health care workers are supported, and that the health care sector has the necessary staff to provide timely, high-quality care.