Thursday, June 10, 2010
CANADIAN HEALTH PROFESSIONALS SECRETARIAT
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Thursday, June 10, 2010
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CANADIAN HEALTH PROFESSIONALS SECRETARIAT
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Report from the April 19 & 20, 2010 Meeting Bill Craik, Natalie Horejda and Chris Driol attended the two-day semi-annual meeting held in Ottawa on April 19th and 20th. During our meeting we heard from NUPGE that they are working diligently to put a ‘human face’ on public services and demonstrate that public sector workers should not be facing the consequences of poor government financial management. The Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT) presented information to our group and highlighted the fact that Saskatchewan has the lowest number of Occupational Therapists/100,000 population in Canada. While there are 38 OTs/100,000 population nationally, Saskatchewan only has 24 OTs/100,000 population. This problem is exacerbated by employers who persist in acting as if Occupational Therapists are interchangeable with Physical Therapists and hiring whichever group of professionals is in greater supply. CAOT will have a caseload Management Tool completed by spring 2011 and it is our hope that the members we represent will be better served by ongoing collaboration between our Union and Professional Associations of all disciplines. At the CHPS meeting we also had a presentation and question and answer session with Janet Cooper, the Senior Director of Professional and Membership Affairs for the Canadian Pharmacists Association. She talked about their ongoing advocacy work for the profession and also referenced the workload Measurement Tools developed by the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists. As we received reports from across Canada, it is clear that different governments are placing varying values on the importance of public health care funding and retention and recruitment of health care professionals. British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario and New Brunswick appear to be totally focused on cost-cutting layoffs, wage freezes, and cuts to health care services. Other provinces have actually significantly increased health care expenditures. Even Alberta , which experiences a bigger provincial deficit per capita than ours, has reversed earlier decisions to cut services and instead has made sizable and significant new investments in health care. Our ongoing involvement with other health care professional unions from across Canada assists us in our advocacy work for our members. It is our hope that our continued association with CHPS will continue to provide us with information and tools that we can utilize on your behalf.
For more information, please visit NUPGE’s website.
Report from December 2008 Meeting Report from May 2008 Meeting |
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