Doctors make up to $450 per hour during hospital COVID surges
Ontario nurses are set to rally against wage suppression legislation at the same time the province is temporarily paying doctors up to $450 an hour to work in hospitals during COVID surges.
The most highly paid nurses - with 25 years experience - get $48.53 an hour in Ontario. A new nurse is paid $33.90.
Nurses stopped getting pandemic pay more than eight months ago as the program ran in 2020 from April 24 to Aug. 13.
Doctors were not part of that program, and a spokesperson from the office of Health Minister Christine Elliott stresses the temporary physician funding for hospitals set out April 10 isn't pandemic pay.
There is no pandemic pay for doctors," a statement says. This temporary funding provides an hourly payment that eliminates the requirement for physicians to track and bill for every service provided to every patient in a high-acuity, high-intensity COVID environment."
The hourly pay - ranging from $125 to $450 depending on the type of work and time of day - is meant to enable hospitals to more easily redeploy doctors during COVID surges.
This was meant to reduce the administrative burden on physicians," the Ontario Medical Association said in a statement. There was no pandemic bonus' pay for physicians."
The doctor pay has further inflamed nurses at a time when they are fighting Bill 124, which restricts raises in the public sector to one per cent annually for three years.
Nurses are holding a virtual rally Friday from noon to 1:15 p.m. saying they feel disrespected by the government despite their work during the pandemic.
The premier has failed to provide adequate personal protective equipment, sick pay to those exposed to COVID-19 and has overridden their contracts to allow employers to redeploy them anywhere, any time," Vicki McKenna, president of the Ontario Nurses' Association, said in a statement Thursday.
In an interview with The Spectator, McKenna says nurses don't expect to be paid the same as doctors but are frustrated and angry" because they have not been acknowledged in the same way."
Nurses are left out," she said. If they are going to employ COVID pay scales and premiums, it should be for everyone."
Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com