The Registered Nurses’ Union has given the provincial government a proposal that it says would end reliance on expensive travel agency nurses.

Newfoundland and Labrador has spent tens of millions of dollars on import nurses as a stop-gap measure to keep the health care system running, but the RNU says there is a better way.

President Yvette Coffey is calling on government to create a coordinated, province-wide nursing travel system. She says it would use a clear and fair system that would pay more to service harder-to-reach communities. It would also include paid travel time, safe rest periods, and public tracking of vacancies, overtime, and agency spending.

The RNU’s far-reaching proposal encourages greater use of nurse practitioners, and a province-wide review to fix pay differences between nurses doing the same job.