What is the plan to fill health care worker vacancies? - QP

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Mr. Speaker, my question is for the Premier. There are upwards of 1,000 nurse vacancies in Nova Scotia. On top of that, 25 per cent of nurses in the province hope to retire in the next five years. Even with increased nursing seats, and even if every nurse graduate accepted a job offer, there would still not be close to enough nurses to fill these gaps.

Virtually every person in this province who needs health care at all is impacted by the lack of a coherent plan to replace this workforce. The government promised to fix health care. Can the Premier explain how that can happen without enough nurses?

HON. MICHELLE THOMPSON « » : We know that it's really important that we grow our own health care workers, but to the member opposite's point, that's it exactly. We need to look at our labour and immigration strategy.

We've been working with our partners in the Department of Labour, Skills and Immigration. We've been working with our federal counterparts. There are a number of initiatives that are under way in regard to how we bring folks into this province, how we credential them, how we make sure that their education is on par with ours so that we can get them on the floors and get them taking care of Nova Scotians.

We have a number of different plans that are in the test-and-try stage, and I am very hopeful. Immigration absolutely is a huge part of our success to fixing the workforce in Nova Scotia.

CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : Thank you for that answer - although I hope they can also find a place to live.

There are roughly a thousand health care vacancies on top of nurses, including dozens of paramedics. The ones we speak to don't have great things to say about the government. In the meantime, people are waiting and waiting in doctors' offices and emergency rooms, and in their homes for an ambulance.

In a global shortage of health professionals, this government keeps repeating - and we just heard - recruitment, recruitment, recruitment, but they won't even tell us the employment status of the person in charge of recruitment.

I'd like to ask the Premier « » : Does he have a real plan to fill these vacancies, and if so, can he share it with Nova Scotians?

MICHELLE THOMPSON « » : We certainly know that stabilizing the workforce in this province is a key to our success. We have hired 100 medical drivers who are non-paramedics to allow paramedics, as an example, to do the work that they, the emergency services, respond to.

In regard to the paramedicine workforce, we have a workforce committee that sits on a regular basis and includes the College of Paramedics. It includes the union. It includes Nova Scotia Health. It includes the Department of Health and Wellness. We have a graduate licence to make sure the paramedics can get into the trucks and into the communities sooner.

We know there's a lot of work to do, Mr. Speaker, but these are early signs that we are committed to improving health care in Nova Scotia.