Letters: Travel nurse matter needs to change; election time to voice concerns over health care

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Travel nurse issue impacting all provinces

Regarding the travel nurse issue, it does not seem right we and other provinces are spending huge dollars on travel nurses from away when we could offer our own nurses a better salary to help retain them here. For example, N.B. nurses are leaving our province to get paid double (plus other benefits like free rent) to work in another province or territories. At the same time, because we are short of nurses New Brunswick is hiring travel nurses from away to fill in the shortage. Plus it is reported that one in four existing nurses here are thinking of doing the same. I read in this newspaper that N.B. spent  millions on travel nurses in 2023. So what is wrong with this picture?

Well, I think it is time the provincial health and finance minister’s have a national meeting to discuss how to fix this which is costing all provinces extra dollars. In my view the ultimate goal is to stop this interprovincial transfer of nurses. So how do we do that? Well how about all provinces agree to limit the payscale to say, 25 per cent more vs. double plus benefits. We are cutting each other’s throats and who’s paying the bill? Yup – we the taxpayers. An easy fix I would say, but someone has to start the ball rolling.

With regards to the shortage of nursing home workers, this has resulted in nursing homes closing numerous rooms off because they do not have enough staff to service those beds. In turn this has resulted in more people taking up hospital beds longer than normal, some as long as six to nine months longer than after their technical discharge… another expense to taxpayers. How about we pay nursing home caregivers an extra $5 bucks an hour to encourage more to do that job and for retention as well? Then we make more hospital beds available and, hopefully, that helps the overall wait time at various hospital levels. Surely the extra millions the travel nurses cost us last year would easily allow a salary increase for our own nurses and the nursing home caregivers, which just may be one key to improving our overall health care system.

Just my take.

Ron D Berry

Moncton

Election offers opportunity to send MLAs down pathway

I wish to comment on the Thursday, Feb. 22 article Minister says he’s ready to negotiate with docs over health-care crisis. 

After six years in government and no significant improvements yet, I doubt this government will ever make any improvements. The article also mentions that Fitch’s brother is a doctor. Is that reference to his brother supposed to give us more confidence in Fitch’s ability? 

If you are as fed up as I am, I ask that you join me at the next election. Together we can send Fitch and his like-minded MLA’s down that pathway he mentions, once and for all. Never to return to government. 

Al Thomas 

Fredericton