NDP, nurse practitioners call for overhaul of health system to improve recruitment, retention

The NDP and Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners are calling for a complete overhaul of the Saskatchewan’s health care program, in order to keep more health care professionals in the province.

“Our health system is in crisis, and we should have all options on the table,” said NDP MLA Vicki Mowat.

Mowat argued the current health care program needed to be slashed to make way for the “Grow-Your-Own” health care strategy, which she said would include more training and opportunities to increase health care professional retention rates.

“With windfall revenues, we should be deploying these resources to ensure health workers wanting to scale up can access bridging and training opportunities where they are at in their home communities,” said Mowat.

The “Grow-Your-Own” health care strategy was originally touted by the Saskatchewan Party in 2014, Mowat said, but was never enacted by the  government.

Last month, the provincial government announced a $60-million plan that aims to add more than 1,000 new workers to Saskatchewan’s health care system over the next several years.

“We’ll hire as many people out there as we possibly can get within our health-care system,” Health Minister Paul Merriman said in a statement.

“If there’s somebody out there who wants a position in health care, we’ll hire them. We’ll bring them in, train them, help them with their education and we will find placement for them. We do know we need 1,000 health-care workers to stabilize our system of the next couple years.”

Tara Schmalenberg, president of the Saskatchewan Association of Nurse Practitioners, said that’s not enough.

According to Schmalenberg, a survey showed 35 per cent of nurse practitioners are employed part-time, but would like to be full-time employees in their communities. Ten per cent are unemployed based on the geographical region they live in.

Schmalenberg argued that the incentives in the current health care plan are not effective when it comes to retaining health care workers.

“Even with the new incentive packages meant to entice professionals in hard-to-reach positions, this will not create stable health care services in those communities,” said Schmalenberg.

“Historically, we have continually seen providers leave for more desirable areas once their contractual obligations have been filled.”

Nurse practitioners are underused in the province, Schmalenberg said, and need to be established in different clinics in rural and remote areas. Similar plans to “Grow-Your-Own” are currently in different provinces to better utilize nurse practitioners and attract more health care workers, she said.

NDP MLA Matt Love said a better system would help retain workers in rural and remote areas.

“I think its simple. health care workers are more likely to stay and work in their hometown,” said Love. “A ‘Grow-Your-Own’ (plan) would help us train more health care workers and keep them where they are needed most.”