Good afternoon. I am the secretary-treasurer of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions, and I'm a working nurse. I work in the recovery room of the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, so hello to my fellow Albertans.
CFNU represents over 156,000 nurses and student nurses. Our members work in hospitals, long-term-care facilities, community health, and in our homes. We thank the Standing Committee on Finance for the opportunity to share our views today.
Budget 2011 focused on innovation, education, and training as key drivers for economic recovery. Our first two recommendations build on this trajectory by targeting education, training, and innovation programs to health care workers. Our final recommendation will ensure sustainability in public health care, improve health outcomes, and put more money in Canadians' pockets.
The federal government has recently invested in pilot projects to support partnerships of health care employers, governments, health care worker unions, and professional associations to improve workplaces. These pilot projects were called “research to action”, applied workplace solutions for nurses, and have supported research that shows that a small investment in changing the culture of a workplace can reduce overtime, turnover costs, and increase patient satisfaction.
To provide some perspective on the need to support innovation at the workplace, Canada is currently short by 11,000 full-time-equivalent registered nurses; that's approximately 16,500 people. Without immediate intervention, this labour shortage will increase to a 60,000 FTE RN shortage, approximately 90,000 people by the year 2022. The cost of this shortage, in paid overtime alone, is $660 million annually.
Our applied research shows that innovation pays off. Improvements in working conditions and opportunities for professional development and skills upgrading would convince at least half of the nurses contemplating retirement to extend their careers. I'm not one of them, just so you know.
By strengthening leadership and empowering nurses, we can reduce the turnover rate by more than half. In other words, we can reduce the nursing shortage and all the costs associated with the shortage and improve patient outcomes by simple innovations that increase productivity and improve retention rates.
We therefore recommend a health innovation pilot project fund of $30 million over three years, fashioned after the wait time guarantee fund.
Budget 2011 proposed to combat the shortage of health care professionals by forgiving a portion of Canada student loans for new family physicians, nurse practitioners, and nurses who practise in rural or remote communities. We encourage the federal government to expand this program to health care workers who have gone back to school to upgrade skills. A personal care worker who is seeking to upgrade to become a licensed practical nurse, an LPN seeking to become a registered nurse, or an RN seeking to become a nurse practitioner are some examples. They could all benefit from student loan forgiveness, as financial cost is a common barrier to skills upgrading.
We encourage budget 2012 to extend loan forgiveness to health workers entering programs that upgrade skills. We also recommend that an apprenticeship-like program be developed to support job laddering in health care.
A similar tiered pathway approach that allows EI support at various stages in training would provide health care students with the option to enter into the workforce at various stages of their education and training. We believe this would be of particular value for engaging aboriginal Canadians and internationally educated nurses in skills upgrading.
Our last recommendation is for a federal commitment to universal pharmacare. Premiums for private drug insurance soared by 15% annually between 2003 and 2005, while drug costs rose by 8%. Canadians pay 30% more than the OECD average for prescription drugs.
Research has shown that savings can be gained from implementing a public insurance plan for pharmaceuticals by changing drug pricing practices. If Canada modeled its pharmacare program after New Zealand's in how it tenders and prices drugs, Canada could reduce its drug expenses by as much as $10.2 billion annually. With additional savings from dispensing fees, cheaper administration, and removal of tax subsidies, total savings could be $10.7 billion annually.
A national pharmacare plan is a spending program that pays for itself.
We urge the federal government to enter into a cost-sharing arrangement with the provinces and territories on a comprehensive national pharmaceutical program. After all, it's a win for the federal government that introduces it, it's a win for the provinces and territories, and most of all it's a win for all Canadians.