An access to information request from the NDP has revealed some 1,905 unfilled positions in the health care system.

Conception Bay East-Bell Island candidate Kim Churchill says she filed the ATIPP request, which looks at the last two years, in December.

She says some of the positions have been left unfilled for 154 weeks.

Churchill calls the numbers “absolutely shocking,” and accuses government of not being forthcoming about the situation.

She calls it “overwhelming” to look at the numbers as a single set, realizing the potential impacts in both the short and longer terms.

Churchill is one of four candidates in the ongoing by-election. The others are Tina Neary for the PCs, Fred Hutton for the Liberals, and Darryl Harding as an Independent Conservative.

Meanwhile, Health Minister Tom Osborne counters that government has been open and transparent that there are vacancies in every discipline of health care—and that is a global issue.

Osborne contends that their recruitment efforts are working and the numbers are starting to decrease.

As an example of the way things are working, he says the province’s fourth cancer radiation unit is now open.

He says they are working on repatriating patients that were sent away for treatment. He says that unit is open because they have recruited the required staff.