The province’s Health Minister says ways forward must be found to deal with a shift in the way in which health care workers want to work.

At last count, there were some 500 or so health care workers off or isolating due to COVID-19.

While COVID has put great strain on the health care system, like many industries and professions, the pandemic has also resulted in a shift in attitude toward how many hours people want to work and others who have opted for early retirement.

John Haggie says government has commissioned research into changes in the workforce to address staffing issues.

He says staffing in the health care system has been exacerbated by workers off due to COVID, but like other jurisdictions, there has also been a movement toward early retirement and “casualization.”

That RFP closed last week and he’s hoping that they’ll have more concrete information in the not-too-distant future about what appeals to health care workers. A similar process will be undertaken for physicians as well as part of ongoing recruitment efforts.