Newfoundland and Labrador’s opposition parties are none too impressed with the provincial government’s breakdown of nursing recruitment and vacancies provided earlier this week.
On Thursday, the province provided a detailed breakdown of nursing recruitment, indicating 839 nurses have been recruited and are working in the system since April 2023. The government also revealed that the turnover rate for Registered Nurses is about 292 positions per year, and so far this year, they have recruited 370, meaning vacancies are slowly coming down.
PC Health Critic Barry Petten said the information presented left him more confused than ever.
He said a better breakdown is needed, and ultimately, there are still a lot of vacancies, emergency rooms are “bursting at the seams,” and over 100,000 people are still without a family doctor. Petten says nothing that was presented gives a solution to those problems.
Meanwhile, NDP MHA Jordan Brown says the numbers show that the government’s “lack of respect for nurses has hurt (the) healthcare system.,”
Brown says that has turned the nursing profession into a job no one wants.
He says the province would be in a much better place if the government used the money spent on travel nurses to retain nurses who have left the system.
Brown states that the government needs to “stop clapping itself on the back” and double down on fixing the issues.