Nurses put patient safety in federal election spotlight
ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - Canadians are seeing the results of a decade of health cuts in recent statistics on patient safety and in public health failures such as SARS, says the head of the Canadian Nurses Association.
Nurses have warned for years that the system has been weakening, said Rob Calnan, outgoing president of the 120,000-strong union. "These studies show it's not just anecdotal. It's a reality," Calnan said in St. John's, where hundreds of registered nurses gathered Sunday for a biennial conference.
One recent report found that preventable errors may be contributing to as many as 24,000 deaths a year in Canada.
The study by Prof. Ross Baker of the University of Toronto and Dr. Peter Norton of the University of Calgary also found that one in 13 people experienced a so-called adverse event while in hospital.
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