Liepert: No nursing shortage
Health and Wellness Minister Ron Liepert said in the Legislative Assembly yesterday that the nursing shortage has virtually been solved overnight.
Liberal Leader David Swann asked Liepert: "A month ago there was a shortage of 1,400 nurses in the province; now, according to the website, only 30. How does the minister explain this math?"
Liepert replied that: "projections of a year ago of the number of nurses retiring have certainly changed in the last year due to economic circumstances. So there are a whole bunch of factors involved. Surely the Leader of the Opposition wouldn’t be asking us to go out and hire nurses that we don’t need and then lay them off in the next few months."
However, whole units that have been closed because of the shortage of nurses in hospitals across the province are NOT being re-opened. Hospitals are still using over-complement beds to pack patients into units where there are nurses.
The hiring freeze that has been implemented will have an immediate further impact on levels of care and services available in our health system.
The Minister also said that: "The various facilities are not permitted at this time to simply go out and hire nurses whenever they feel like they should." But he was quick to clarify it is NOT a hiring freeze.
But according to UNA Local President Marg Hayne, if it’s not a freeze, things have gotten pretty chilly. No postings for nursing positions have gone up at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in nearly a month and the strain is beginning to show.
"We have nurses who are being denied their statutory holiday leave and other time off, because the managers say they can't spare them, they are too short," Marg Hayne says. "We're going into summer and they won't have the replacement nurses needed to cover vacations."
Vacations are being denied in other health facilities around the province as well. UNA has been filing grievances for nurses who are having their vacations cancelled or refused time off.
"I'm not confident that Mr. Liepert is correct on this," Marg Hayne said. |
