‘Patients at risk.’ Doctors raise alarm over new long-term-care role for nurse practitioners

Proposed change has been a “long-time coming,” says Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario CEO Doris Grinspun. “Let’s move on and do what’s best for residents and their families.”

Dec. 13, 2024

Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the Ontario Medical Association, says allowing nurse practitioners to become clinical directors of long-term-care homes, instead of doctors, “will put patients at risk.” Steve Russell Toronto Star

The organization that represents Ontario’s doctors is raising concerns over a proposed change to provincial long-term-care legislation that it says could put patient safety at risk. 

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) says a new provincial plan that allows nurse practitioners to take on the role of clinical director in long-term-care homes — a position traditionally performed by doctors under the title medical director — is “the opposite of common sense.”

“I’ll be very clear. Diluting physician leadership in long-term care homes will put patients at risk,” said Dr. Dominik Nowak, president of the OMA. “People who are in long-term-care homes are some of the most complex, some of the most vulnerable older adults that we have in society, and the medicine is challenging.”

Read more at the Toronto Star