The Tory Opposition is pressing government to address a serious nursing shortage, particularly in long-term care facilities.

Health critic Paul Dinn says the party’s recent access to information request revealed that staffing levels are at critically low levels.

That, Dinn says, is resulting in more empty hospital beds.

Specifically, he notes the access request revealed 93 vacant beds across four facilities in St. John’s, with over 160 unfilled positions.

Provincewide, there are an estimated 600 current vacancies and another 900 nurses eligible to retire.

Dinn also referenced recent comments by nurses union president Yvette Coffey who noted a big discrepancy between the number of retiring nurses and those graduating from nursing school.

He’s urging the provincial government to address the shortages as quickly as possible in nursing, but with other frontline health professions as well.