Registered Nurses Union President Yvette Coffey is pleased with a pilot project that she hopes will eliminate or significantly reduce the province’s reliance on so-called agency nurses.

The province has had to hire agency nurses at considerable cost to help fill vacancies in the health care system, something the RNU says is causing even greater concerns.

In some cases, agency nurses are working alongside public health nurses and getting twice the salary and with more flexible hours.

Coffey says a travel nurse program has been put in place using nurses in the current health system who are interested in moving around the province to help fill vacancies when they arise.

She says the pilot is working well and helping to fill gaps in Labrador in particular. She says the RNU is having productive and positive discussions with NL Health Services and Treasury Board on the possibility of putting the program in place on a permanent basis.

Osborne on Staffing Levels

Health Minister Tom Osborne meanwhile says they’re slowly whittling away at nursing vacancies in the province.

At it’s peak there were as many as 735 nursing vacancies. That number is now down below 600 after more than 300 Registered Nurses were successfully recruited to the province.

He says recent discussions with the RNU have focused on retention as well as recruitment.