Ontario has announced legislation that will allow hyper-fast-track healthcare workers to practice in the province.
The legislation has yet to pass, but the Ford government has introduced a bill called “As of Right”. It would allow healthcare workers that are registered or licensed outside of Ontario to practice within the province immediately; bypassing various Ontario health regulatory colleges.
With the current healthcare crisis continuing in cities across the province, the aim would be to allow for more staff at hospitals to practice in their field using their knowledge base and to fill current high-demand roles.
In the release, it states “Ontario will also be helping hospitals and other health organizations temporarily increase staffing when they need to fill vacancies or manage periods of high patient volume”, however, it doesn’t detail if the skilled hospital staff would need to go through the regulatory process eventually to be fully registered in the province.