For Immediate Release
September 5, 2024
MHA Jordan Brown (Labrador West) is questioning government’s commitment to retention after Health Minister John Hogan announced a new incentive program today for salaried family doctors already working with NL Health Services.
Since the announcement of a new Family Care Team in Labrador West in March 2023, there has yet to be a doctor recruited for the clinic. Brown questions how today’s announcement, which focuses on convincing doctors already in the province to join a team along with their roster of patients, will help recruitment or reduce wait times.
"Labrador West has been trying to recruit physicians for years before the pandemic, and even after the last round of monetary incentives,” said Brown. “Do I think that this $75,000 incentive will fill the two positions in Labrador West’s Family Care Team? I can hope, but ultimately until government focuses on the reason why doctors are leaving, I don’t see it as an answer.
“If we want to focus on recruitment and retention, government must start listening to health care workers on the ground who continue to point to solutions, like addressing work-life balance, and workplace safety,” said Brown. “For Labrador West specifically, this also means addressing the growing crisis in housing, affordability, and the cost of intra-provincial travel.”
"If successive Liberal and Tory governments hadn't mismanaged our health care system, we would have capacity in our system to hire but also retain the health care workers we lost, and never gotten to this point.
“Recruitment is one thing, we need to recruit new doctors into our public system, but it’s keeping them here that this government continues to fumble.”
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For further information, contact Stephanie Curran, Media and Communications Officer, NDP Caucus at 330-0328 (o), or stephaniecurran@gov.nl.ca
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