Ontario is Doing More to Expand its Health Workforce | Biden News

Ontario is Doing More to Expand its Health Workforce

 | Biden News

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A much-needed new change that makes it easier and faster for healthcare workers to enroll and train in Ontario

TORONTO — The Ontario government is making additional changes that will break down barriers so that more healthcare professionals can work in Ontario. Doing more to expand the province’s health workforce is an important part of the Plan to Stay Open: Health System Stability and Recovery to ensure people can continue to access the health care services they need, when they need them.

“This change will bring more health workers into our health system more quickly, helping to care for people when they need them,” said Sylvia Jones, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Health. “Our government will work with all partners to ensure nurses, doctors, personal support workers in Ontario and other healthcare professionals have the resources, support, and guidance they need to enter the workforce and continue to provide the care that Ontarians deserve. .”

The changes proposed by the Ontario Ministry of Health, Ontario College of Nursing and Ontario College of Physicians and Surgeons, will support recruitment efforts and speed up and make it easier for Ontario, provincial and international trained healthcare professionals to apply. and train in Ontario.

Changes that will take effect immediately include:

  • Allow internationally educated nurses to enroll in interim classes and get to work faster as they work towards full enrollment;
  • Make it easier for non-practicing or retired nurses to return to the field by introducing flexible requirements that they must have practiced nursing for a certain period of time before reapplying; and
  • Creating new temporary self-practice enrollment classes for doctors from other provinces and territories, making it easier for them to work up to 90 days in Ontario.

Further changes, which take effect on January 1, 2023, include:

  • Require health-regulating colleges to comply with deadlines for making enrollment decisions;
  • Prohibit health-regulating colleges from requesting Canadian work experience for enrollment purposes, with some exceptions such as when equivalent international experience is accepted; and
  • Receive an approved language test based on Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (Canada) to reduce duplicate language proficiency testing for immigrants to Canada.

Finally, by 31 August 2023, health-regulating colleges will be required to have new enrollment categories that can be used to facilitate faster enrollment to help maintain a supply of health workers in the event of a future emergency.

“CPSO thanks the Government of Ontario for fulfilling our request to amend our regulations to allow the creation of new temporary enrollment classes that help support mobility in Canada,” said Nancy Whitmore, MD, FRCSC, MBA, Registrar and CEO of the College of Physicians and Surgeons. Ontario. “There’s still a lot to do but it’s a good first step.”

“The Ontario Medical Association welcomes today’s announcement as a good first step towards maximizing the healthcare workforce,” said Dr. Rose Zacharias, President of the Medical Association of Ontario. “We need more doctors and nurses to treat patients who return to the healthcare system in large numbers.”

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