Bill 19 explained in plain English
Patient-to-Nurse Ratios for Hospitals Act, 2025
Ontario legislature bill summary, status, timeline, sponsor, votes, and official sources.
At a glance
Official Legislative Assembly of Ontario snapshot for 44th Parliament, 1st Session. Representative vote breakdowns appear when the Assembly publishes an Ayes and Nays page for the bill.
Our plain-language take, written for civic education.
Source: By PoliticalData.ca
Bill 19 amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act to establish maximum patient-to-nurse ratios in Ontario hospitals that the Ministry of Health must ensure are not exceeded.
Bill 19 would create new rules for how many patients each nurse can care for in Ontario hospitals. It adds a new section to the Health Protection and Promotion Act that sets maximum patient-to-nurse ratios depending on the type of care being provided. For the most acute patients (those on ventilators in critical care), one nurse would care for no more than one patient. For critical care patients not on ventilators and highly dependent mental health patients, one nurse would care for no more than two patients. For specialized care, the ratio would be 3-to-1. For regular inpatient and palliative care, it would be 4-to-1. For rehabilitative care during the day, it would be 5-to-1, and for night shifts, 7-to-1. The Ministry of Health would be required to ensure these ratios are not exceeded. The bill also indicates that regulations will prescribe the mix of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses to be used. If passed, the law would come into effect 12 months after receiving Royal Assent.
- Amends the Health Protection and Promotion Act by adding section 9.1 to establish maximum patient-to-nurse ratios in Ontario hospitals
- Sets a maximum 1-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio for critical care patients on ventilators
- Sets a maximum 2-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio for critical care patients not on ventilators and highly dependent patients needing mental health care
- Sets a maximum 3-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio for specialized care
- Sets a maximum 4-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio for inpatient and palliative care
- Sets a maximum 5-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio for rehabilitative care other than on night shifts
- Sets a maximum 7-to-1 patient-to-nurse ratio for rehabilitative care on night shifts
- Requires the Ministry of Health to ensure patient-to-nurse ratios do not exceed these maximums
- Indicates that regulations will prescribe the mix of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses
- Sets the commencement date 12 months after Royal Assent
- Ontario hospitals and hospital administrators
- The Ministry of Health, which would be required to ensure compliance with the ratios
- Nurses (registered nurses, nurse practitioners, and registered practical nurses) whose workloads would be governed by these ratios
- Patients in Ontario hospitals, as the ratios may affect the care they receive
- Healthcare employers in Ontario
- The Ministry of Health is required to ensure that patient-to-nurse ratios do not exceed the specified maximums for each type of care setting
- Future regulations will prescribe the specific mix of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses that must be used
- First Reading: May 13, 2025
- Commencement: 12 months after Royal Assent (date not yet determined as the bill has not yet received Royal Assent)
- The bill text does not specify enforcement mechanisms or penalties for non-compliance with the patient-to-nurse ratios
- The bill does not specify which specific hospitals or settings must comply with these ratios
- The bill does not define what constitutes 'critical care,' 'highly dependent patients,' 'specialized care,' 'inpatient care,' 'palliative care,' or 'rehabilitative care,' leaving these definitions to be determined through regulations or existing law
- The bill does not specify enforcement mechanisms or what consequences hospitals face if they exceed these ratios
- The bill does not specify how the Ministry of Health will monitor or verify compliance
- The bill does not address how hospitals currently exceeding these ratios would transition to compliance
- The bill indicates that the mix of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, and registered practical nurses will be 'prescribed by the regulations,' but these regulations are not yet drafted or provided
- The bill does not address resource or funding implications for hospitals to meet these ratios
- The bill is currently at First Reading and has not yet been debated or passed by the Legislature
A new section 9.1 is added to establish maximum patient-to-nurse ratios that the Ministry of Health must ensure are not exceeded in Ontario hospitals
Source: Section 1 (amending Part II)
Generated using AI from official bill text. Not legal advice. It is written by PoliticalData.ca for civic education, automatically checked and spot-reviewed before publishing.
Official textProcess Snapshot
Vote Summary
This bill is still active. We only show vote counts after the legislature publishes a recorded division.
No published representative vote breakdown
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Official sources
Status, sponsor, votes, and timeline on this page are drawn from these official legislative sources and public records. Each summary above is attributed to its own source.
How this data is sourced