The President of NAPE says staffing shortages that have forced the cancellation of blood collection services at the Health Sciences have been brewing for some time – and the problem is only going to get worse.

Jerry Earle believes that had the issues surrounding what he calls excessive and unmanageable workloads been addressed sooner, current delays and cancellations could have been avoided.

Earle says the problem is also being felt at Major’s Path and other areas in the province.

He says frontline management failed to recognize the issues surrounding pending staffing shortages, and now it’s affecting patient care.

CNA Prince Philip campus no longer has MLA graduate program says Earle

He says there is only one program in all of Newfoundland and Labrador that graduates medical lab assistants.

“We used to have one on Prince Philip Drive until last year…over 50 per cent of MLAs are on the Avalon Peninsula. We don’t have an MLA program now, because some bureaucrat decided some time the winter that the CNA wasn’t going to be funded for that program.”

That’s a problem says Earle because even if the program were brought back for the winter semester, it still takes at least a year before students graduate.

“And we have one program now in central Newfoundland with 12 to 14 seats, for an occupation that is in excess of 230 positions.”