Nurses ready ‘to crash' premiers' party
The Telegram (St. John's NL, July 27, 2006)
It was no coincidence Wednesday when nurses from across the country gathered at Delta Hotel in St. John's at the very same time as the nation's premiers were preparing to kick off their annual meeting only a few kilometers away at the Fairmont Newfoundland hotel.

Nurses' have taken this opportunity since 1998.  We show up at every annual meeting to crash their party.  We're there, we shake hands, we kiss babies.  We make sure we meet with the premiers to talk about health care," said Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU).

Premiers receptive
With health care being the Number 1 issue in Canada, Silas said she's pleased that the premiers have been receptive to listening to their concerns.

"We feel the premiers have to hear from the finance people (about) all the dollars of health care, but they also have to hear from the care-givers, from the nurses at the bedside," Silas said in an interview following CFNU conference, titled The Shock of the Possible: Public Solutions to Health Care. 

The CFNU already met with some premiers and health ministers before their meeting in St. John's.

Silas said a meeting was held with Premier Pat Binns in Prince Edward Island a few weeks ago.  Newfoundland Health Minister Tom Osborne met with the CFNU Wednesday and further meetings were scheduled for Wednesday and today with Nova Scotia Premier Rodney MacDonald, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell and Saskatchewan Premier Lorne Calvert.

Silas said the CFNU will continue trying to line up meetings with the other premiers prior to their first ministers' meeting in September.

The biggest worry for nurses, Silas said, is the privatization discussion in a system faced with a human resource shortage.

"There's a shortage, people know it.  You can talk to the taxi driver, he will tell you there's not enough nurses, there's not enough doctors.  The politicians know that and also the taxi driver will know that he can't afford the drugs that's needed for his or her treatment, so those are issues that we have to talk about with the premiers and we say, let's talk about common sense issues of health care and not get all worried about what it will cost.  It will cost what Canadians are willing to pay for," Silas said.

She believes politicians need to continue working on positive health-care solutions to rectify Ottawa's slashing of health-care funding in the early 1990's.

We have to continue working on solutions within the public sector, Silas said.  "All this mumbo jumbo about private care is going to save us, it doesn't work, hasn't worked anywhere else and it's not going to work here."