Nurses’ union, PCs offer different interpretations of government’s core staffing review commitments

The union representing nurses in the province says the PC government has committed to using the results of an ongoing core staffing review of nursing occupations to direct improvements across the province’s healthcare system. But the Department of Health and Community Services is not explicitly stating the extent to which it will implement the review’s eventual recommendations.

“For too long, our healthcare system has been working with outdated staffing assumptions that no longer reflect today’s realities of rising patient acuity, growing complexity, geographic disparities, and system-wide pressure,” Registered Nurses’ Union NL President Yvette Coffey said in a news release Monday. “This review is a first step towards understanding what the entire system actually needs. And if the recommendations are implemented, it will help stem the hemorrhaging of healthcare professionals and restore confidence in our public system.”

The province, with its aging population, has been plagued by a shortage of nurses who for years have complained of burnout and poor management under Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services (NLHS), the province’s health authority. NLHS came under fire earlier this year after the province’s auditor general revealed it had spent $241 million on agency nurses between 2022 and early 2025—an annual cost of approximately $400,000 per nurse.

The scandal prompted the then Liberal government and the health authority to commit to training and retaining more nurses and, among other things, to launch a core staffing review, which also aligned with recommendations in the province’s Health Accord.

In June the Department of Health and Community Services announced global accounting firm Deloitte as the proponent to conduct the staffing review at six locations across the province: Community Health in Mount Pearl Square; the Placentia Health Centre, including the Lions Manor Nursing Home; Western Long Term Care Home in Corner Brook; the Labrador South Health Centre in Forteau; the James Paton Memorial Regional Health Centre in Gander, and two units of the Health Sciences Centre in St. John’s.

The Liberal government had not made a clear commitment to implement the review’s findings across the province, but the RNU says that has changed under the new Progressive Conservative government.

System-wide implementation, or more reviews?

Before the Oct. 14 provincial election, PC Leader Tony Wakeham—who served as CEO of the Labrador-Grenfell regional health authority from 2012 to 2017—committed to finishing the review “within six months,” handing it over to the RNU, and then working with the union “to implement the results.”

“This is your profession,” Wakeham said. “You know it best, and you ought to be given leadership roles in ensuring your profession’s staffing levels are modernized, safe, and data-informed across the province.”

Registered Nurses’ Union Director of Communications Jonathan Hamel told The Independent Tuesday that the union interpreted Wakeham’s response “as a commitment to producing recommendations that could be applied province-wide.” Hamel also said the new administration “has since confirmed that the findings from this six-site review will be used to guide staffing improvements across NLHS.

“This remains an important first step,” Hamel said. “For the first time in decades, a government has initiated a data-driven examination of what nurses actually need to provide safe, sustainable care. We are encouraged to see the review underway, and we welcome the new government’s commitment to act on its recommendations within six months of receiving them.”

Khadija Rehma, media relations manager for the Department of Health and Community Services, shared a statement from the department Tuesday saying the review will include a “detailed analysis of client, staffing, and organizational factors that contribute to the workload of nurse practitioners, registered nurses, licensed practical nurses and personal care attendants in select NL Health Services locations across the province.” The statement said the review “will result in recommendations and include guidance on expansion of the review of core staffing to other NL Health Services sites,” and that it should be completed in spring 2026.

Since there is a difference between RNU’s interpretation of the government’s commitment and what the Department of Health and Community Services said in its statement Tuesday, The Independent asked the department to clarify whether the current review and eventual report will be used to make system-wide improvements to NLHS staffing, or whether, as the department said in its email, the review will inform government on expanding the review to other NLHS sites. The latter scenario would require additional investments and significantly more time.

The department offered a vague one-line response, noting the core staffing review “is a comprehensive project that will include recommendations to optimize staffing levels and lead to improvements in the delivery of care throughout NL Health Services.”

Great expectations

While the PCs aren’t making a clear commitment to using the review of select healthcare facilities to implement province-wide improvements to nurse staffing, they’re under pressure from a union with high hopes.

“We are not expecting that every recommendation can be implemented immediately. The system has been operating on decades-old data, so updating staffing models will take time,” Hamel said Tuesday. “What matters to us is that government moves quickly once the review is finished and does not delay putting the recommendations into action. We have appreciated the Premier’s willingness to start this work right away.”

“Our members continue to carry a heavy load and have been clear for years about what isn’t working,” Coffey said in Monday’s release from the RNU. “This government’s commitment to take action is encouraging. We will be watching closely for follow-through, and we are ready to be strong partners in this work.”