Registered Nurses Union says as an appointee to the Surgical Backlog Taskforce, the number one issue affecting surgical backlogs is the nursing shortage.

President Yvette Coffey says another 300 members either left the health care sector or left full-time jobs for casual positions in the last year, adding to existing full-time nursing vacancies in the system.

She says measures being taken by the Ontario government in introducing publicly-funded private clinics to address surgical backlogs are not the answer.

“We do not see the erosion of our publicly-funded health care system by going to private clinics as the solution here,” says Coffey. “Retention is what government needs to be focusing on.”

The premier says the privatization of services to alleviate surgical backlogs is not something the province is looking at.

Andrew Furey was responding to concerns raised by NAPE and others about Ontario’s plans to fund private, for-profit clinics to perform certain surgical procedures and alleviate growing backlogs.

Furey says while there are changes and efficiencies that can be made, they are not looking at going the route Doug Ford is taking.

“Privatization of health care is never something that I’ve been contemplating.”