Rooted in the lived experiences of frontline healthcare workers, Newfoundland and Labrador NDP Leader Jim Dinn today unveiled NL Cares – a robust, solutions-driven healthcare plan aimed at tackling the staffing shortages and improving patient care across the province.
“For far too long, healthcare workers in our province have been disrespected and ignored,” said Dinn. “We continue to hear from workers and unions who feel this government isn’t listening. These are the people on the front lines – and they have the solutions. The NDP is listening, and our plan is built to deliver what they – and the people of this province – deserve.”
The NL Cares plan focuses on two urgent priorities: recruitment and retention. It recognizes that delivering high-quality public healthcare starts with valuing and supporting the workers who make it possible.
“We can’t keep losing skilled professionals to burnout and better opportunities elsewhere,” said Dinn. “This plan doesn’t just aim to bring more workers in – it makes Newfoundland and Labrador a place where they want to stay.”
The first priority of NL Cares is retention – keeping the healthcare professionals we already have and making the Newfoundland and Labrador Health Service (NLHS) a more attractive, respectful place to work. This includes:
- Work with frontline healthcare staff and other stakeholders to develop effective safe hours legislation;
- Setting up an independent Health Sector Safety Council, especially to deal with workplace violence and other health and safety issues specific to the healthcare sector;
- Making shift flexibility a reality by giving healthcare workers greater power to self-schedule (where appropriate);
- Committing to a review of the Job Evaluation System applied to allied health professionals in 2015; and
- Giving frontline employees a seat at the table when the decisions being made affect how they work.
Healthcare professionals across the province have repeatedly said they “feel unheard” by their employer, and that the government “isn’t listening” when they bring forward cost-effective solutions to the healthcare crisis. NL Cares changes that by ensuring management works collaboratively and consults regularly with frontline employees and their unions to improve the work environment, support quality of life, and strengthen patient care.
To fill critical gaps in the system, the second pillar of NL Cares focuses on recruiting new health professionals. The plan includes the following measures:
- Recruit 1,000 new healthcare workers into the workforce.
- Reduce the burden on healthcare within the system by making it a priority to recruit allied health professionals and others to reduce workloads;
- Make primary care more accessible in rural and remote areas by expanding the nurse travel locum program province-wide;
- Create 20 new seats at Memorial’s Medical School;
- Implement support and mentorship systems for new health profession graduates
- Restore the full-time recruiter position in the MUN Medical School for physicians, and hire one specifically devoted to nursing schools, and one for other healthcare professionals and other identified worker positions in the healthcare system;
- Merge the new recruiters and those in the regions of NLHS into a single Office for Medical Professional Recruitment, so that they avoid duplicating effort and work together on common goals while sharing expertise and resources;
- Start recruitment initiatives early, by building relationships with medical and nursing students in their first year; and
- Create bursaries and accommodations allowances to ensure that vacant seats in smaller nursing schools outside St. John’s and Corner Brook are filled every year.
“This is the way forward to getting a better deal for this province when it comes to healthcare. This is about showing workers that we see their value, we hear their struggles in the system, and we are ready to act,” said Dinn.
Contrary to recent announcements by both the Liberals and Conservatives, NL Cares is part of the New Democrats fully costed platform, with the initiatives highlighted costing government a total of $25.6 million per year by 2029/2030.