TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Feb. 2, 2016) - A nurse who spoke on a panel about patient violence against nurses has been terminated by the North Bay Regional Hospital.
The Ontario Council of Hospital Unions (OCHU)/CUPE is calling on the provincial government to pressure the North Bay Regional Hospital to reinstate the nurse and to adopt legislation that would make it a criminal offense to assault a health care worker and protect staff who report violent incidents from reprisal.
The North Bay hospital, "is bullying this nurse with the severest form of reprisal for telling the truth about patient violence. This autocratic management knows these assaults are going on, has done very little about them and doesn't want people to talk about them. The hospital CEO must be held accountable for this decision to spend tens of thousands of scarce health care dollars on lawyers to try to uphold this indefensible firing," says OCHU north-eastern Ontario vice-president Sharon Richer.
OCHU will hold a media conference tomorrow, Wednesday, February 3, 2016 at 10 a.m. at 120 Lakeshore Drive to outline the legal and political remedies being pursued in this case.
"The CEO of the North Bay hospital cannot repress discussion about the prevalence of violence. Health care staff must be able to speak up about the widespread extent of this problem and its devastating impact. We look to the Ontario government to act immediately to protect nurses, by investing in increased hospital and long-term care staffing and by introducing proactive legislation, as New York and California have done. At the end of the day, the understaffing of Ontario's health care facilities, which have the fewest staff in Canada, leaves health care workers vulnerable to these assaults," says OCHU president Michael Hurley.
Canadian Institute for Health care Information data suggests that 47 per cent of registered practical nurses (RPNs) are assaulted by a patient or a patient's family member each year.
OCHU is asking the Ontario government to:
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