What do healthcare professionals expect from the Premiers on issues like: skills shortages, staff retention, working conditions and workforce renewal issues? The question is being asked by Linda Silas, president of the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) and Lina Bonamie, president of the Fédération interprofessionnelle de la santé du Québec (FIQ), who represent 215,000 health professionals from coast to coast.
The question follows a one-day think-tank recently held in Quebec City that gathered some 75 health professionals, experts, academics, administrators and executives of various professional organizations in the healthcare fi  eld.
 Key considerations for Premiers according to the CFNU and FIQ are:
• Privatization and P3s are not the way to go.
• Issues of retention and renewal of Canada’s health care workforce have reached crisis levels in many parts of the country and need to be addressed through a concerted, pan-Canadian approach that involves all governments and includes:
• Creating funds – with a return in service  component – to cover the education costs of 
badly needed health professionals;
• Revamping the apprenticeship program  under Employment Insurance to include health care professionals and enable them to maintain and upgrade their skills;
• Creating a culture of safety through Healthy Workplace Initiative.
• A national pharmacare program is key to keeping health care costs manageable. Provinces need to work together and with the federal government to realize this end.
• Canadians expect wise, prudent and cautious spending of public funds. Greater transparency and informed public debate are needed about how our health care dollars are spent.
The full document summarizing the views that came out of the one-day think tank, titled Achieving Our Health Care Vision: Key Considerations for Premiers is available at www.nursesunions.ca and www.fiqsante.qc.ca.
The CFNU and FIQ leaders both stressed that “there is an urgency to these issues that no single province can usefully tackle alone.”