For Immediate Release
9 January, 2023
NL NDP Leader and MHA for St. John’s Centre, Jim Dinn, is concerned that government is focusing on recruitment of international healthcare professionals without addressing the problems surrounding retention. Nurses in the Republic of Ireland are in a legal strike position. Among their concerns are the same issues raised by nurses working here in Newfoundland and Labrador. These include: the need to address unsafe working conditions, inappropriate staffing levels, and the need for increased compensation.
“Government is focused on international recruitment and is ignoring the need to address retention of healthcare workers here in Newfoundland and Labrador,” said Dinn. “They’re robbing Peter to pay Paul, and given our nurses are amongst the lowest paid in Canada my concern is that if government continues to ignore the workplace issues here, once these nurses are recruited from other jurisdictions, they won’t be long going elsewhere in Canada.”
The NL NDP is again calling on government to and address the retention concerns of healthcare workers in this province. That starts by listening to their plea and implementing a comprehensive human resources plan for health.
“It’s easy to buy a plane ticket to travel to a country and boast about your pride for our province. Addressing the retention of healthcare workers is a much bigger task than going abroad,” said Dinn. “Government is ignoring what healthcare workers said needs to be done, namely, putting in place a comprehensive human resources plan for health. The RFP was issued in Spring 2022, and we still have no confirmation that it has been awarded or when the public will see it.”
-30-
For further information, contact Eddy St. Coeur, Director of Communications, NDP Caucus at 729-2137 (o), or eddystcoeur@gov.nl.ca