The President of the Registered Nurses’ Union says she has “no knowledge” of recent recruitment numbers coming out from the Department of Health.

Minister Tom Osborne recently indicated that over 300 registered nurses have been recruited in the current fiscal year.

President Yvette Coffey says she doesn’t know where that number is coming from. The latest numbers the Union is aware of, is that more than 200 nurses have been recruited from India.

However, Coffey notes that not all of them are on the ground. She says between 90 and 100 internationally-trained nurses are on the ground in the province right now.

One year ago nursing vacancies were as high as 750, but Coffey says the union isn’t getting any satisfaction from government on updated vacancy rates.

She says they have been asking for the vacancy report since October, and calls the fact that they haven’t yet received it “quite perturbing.”