RNAO defends the Canadian Health Network

The Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario has issued a strong statement criticizing the federal government for its announced closure this March of the Canadian Health Network.

In its undated "Action Alert" the RNAO states:

[The CHN] is a trusted service that Ontarians use daily to help navigate an overwhelming amount of conflicting opinion and marketing on the web to get to evidence to inform health and health-care decisions.

Health professionals make up 39 per cent of visitors, with nurses compromising the largest segment of health professional users at 14 per cent. The closure of CHN will mean the loss of a health education tool that nurses find invaluable for our nursing practice.

At a more systemic level, we find it unfathomable that the federal government would decimate a trusted resource that has taken eight years to build up in order to save $7 million just as the final surplus for the 2006-2007 fiscal year was $13.8 billion.

RNAO has sent an open letter to the Minister of Health and urges nurses and everyone concerned to do the same, providing a sample letter for the public, which can be sent via the RNAO website.

Go nurses!