Are there any lessons to be learned from the health crisis in Canada?

It’s ‘strike season’ for healthcare staff within the UK. They were carried out by nurses and ambulance staff working inside the National Health Service (NHS) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the most important strike within the history of the organization on February 6, 2023, after the strikes began in December 2022.

Nurses, ambulance staff and physiotherapists will proceed their industrial motion this week. Young doctors they must sustain after voting for strike motion this month.

Media attention on these labor disputes in keeping with Canadian AND international newscasts were intriguing. Health care staff are on strike regularity all over the world, especially within the era of Covid-19. So why is there a lot interest in these particular strikes?

Holding a mirror

One reason is the context wherein these strikes occur; stands Great Britain labor disputes in lots of sectorshighlighting the broader and deeper crisis in government-labor relations within the country.

Their unprecedented nature might also influence the world’s attention: British nurses have never gone on strike in its hundred-year history of organized labor. Scale also plays a job, as strikes have covered large parts of the country.

However, one more reason for international concern could also be that strikes within the UK provide a mirror to other parts of the world, including Canada, reflecting the dissatisfaction of our health care staff.

Labor issues are driving this crisis – staff shortages, pay, advantages, working conditions, repeated waves of Covid-19, burnout — occur all over the world in various forms of healthcare systems. This suggests that global medical examiner policy is fundamentally incorrect. So what lessons can we draw from the situation within the UK in regards to the healthcare crisis unfolding in Canada?

Protests in Canada

In the UK, healthcare staff are demanding pay rises that take note of inflation, in addition to policies to deal with staff shortages and under-investment within the healthcare system. These concerns are clearly much like recent demonstrations by health care staff across Canada.

According to estimates, in 2021-2022 Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project database on protests and political violence, there have been over 150 discreet demonstrations by Canadian health care staff in every Canadian province.

Some of the more notable events included protests against Bill 124 that may have limited wage increases in Ontario, he protests against underinvestment and privatization of health care in Alberta and lack of family doctors and nurses in British Columbia.

While the structure of Canadian healthcare may not lead to national protests much like those within the UK, there isn’t a denying the common DNA of events in Canada. These protests are a transparent manifestation of a deeper crisis in Canada’s health care system, fueled by underinvestment, staff shortages and attrition, burnout and repeated surges of Covid-19 and other respiratory diseases.

These concerns reflect the demands of healthcare staff all over the world. Some evaluation of worldwide medical examiner protests in the primary yr of the pandemic, it was found that the overwhelming majority of protests concerned wages and dealing conditions, akin to inadequate or unpaid wages, hazard pay and job security. It is evident that health policy has not been consistent with public declarations of health care staff as heroes and warriors.

Short-term solutions don’t solve long-term problems

Many frustrations have been expressed by healthcare staff in Canada, the UK and other countries precede the pandemic. Health care staff have long been drawing attention to the issues of underinvestment and savings through strikes and demonstrations.

Yet health system leaders proceed to deal with only essentially the most urgent fires that must be put out, not the elemental issues that impact the provision and access to health services. Insufficient attention has been paid to the unintended consequences of using short-term solutions to deal with the workforce crisis.

For example, travel or contract employment have grow to be lucrative option for nurses within the United States and Canada who’re frustrated with working conditions and in search of more flexibility. But hiring these nurses costs money high price to hospitals and causes persistent dissatisfaction amongst staff because of the imbalance in pay and advantages between travel nurses and staff nurses in the identical facilities.

Another solution is to recruit nurses from low- and middle-income countries; nevertheless, this approach works labor shortages in low- and middle-income countrieswhere migration is a horny option for expert nurses because of workforce and systems challenges in their very own context.

Protests by healthcare staff within the UK mirror problems here in Canada and elsewhere. More importantly, they’re a harbinger of labor strife and systemic breakdown to return if our health care systems proceed to be characterised by austerity, underinvestment, and disrespect for the voices of health care staff.

Reform is urgently needed to deal with these challenges in a way that addresses staff’ concerns, considers long-term workforce planning (and its implications), and prioritizes sustainable investments in health systems. The costs of not seriously committing to some of these reforms are clear to everyone overseas.