NAPE President Jerry Earle says staffing levels in the province’s long-term care facilities have become so stretched, he’s had members come to him in tears.

The province’s largest public sector union is sounding the alarm after being inundated with calls and messages from front-line staff fearful of the impact staffing is having on patient care.

Jerry Earle is calling it a crisis. He says as recently as this weekend, one facility was down to 50 per cent of their regular staffing levels. A ‘Code White’ was called involving an aggressive patient, and the required staff were not available. He says patients or staff could have suffered injuries in the incident, but luckily the remaining staff were able to get the situation under control.

He says members in long-term care don’t know when they arrive for work whether they will be doing their scheduled eight-hour shift, or if they will be doing 12, 16, or even 24 hours. That, says Earle, is not safe, not healthy, and “downright dangerous.”