With hospital operation costs becoming increasingly expensive, the Ontario Liberal Government is looking for ways to cut costs but maintain current hospital services.

One proposed way is to privatize our health care to the "more efficient" private sector. This is not the answer. The private sector increases "efficiency" by issuing user fees or cutting jobs. Current hospital service levels are not possible under a private system. How do you look after more children with cancer or more seniors with Alzheimer's with less staff? What "efficiencies" will lower those costs? There are none. What is required are increased numbers of Health Care Professionals.

Such professionals are Registered Practical Nurses (RPNs). Increased employment of RPNs in Ontario's health care system would increase hospital services while lowering costs.

We can fix the problem today. Currently there is an immediate supply of RPNs. In Ontario, there are about 3,000 registered RPNs who are unemployed, underemployed or not working in health care.

The top salary of RPNs working in Ontario hospitals, including benefits, vacation and wages is $50,000, compared to $80,000 for Registered Nurses (RNs). Yet, RPNs can perform more than two-thirds of a Registered Nurse's duties.

Currently only 11,542 of the 62,475 nurses employed in Ontario hospitals are RPNs.

If only 10 per cent of the positions now held by RNs were filled by RPNs, the system-wide savings would amount to more than $152 million per year. Savings which could be reinvested in service improvement, such as Ontario's nursing shortage.

There are two reasons why RPN employment in Ontario has not increased. Firstly, most hiring of nurses is done by RNs. RNs tend to hire their own.

Secondly, there was an American Study that said it was better to have RNs than RPNs. Canadian researchers, however, point out that you cannot compare the American system to ours. RPNs in Ontario are much more educated than RPNs in America. In fact Ontario's RPNs are trained almost as well as American RNs. This means Ontario's RPNs are able to perform many more duties than the American study accounted for.