SASKATOON — The provincial government and the Opposition has again clashed on the issue of health care recruitment in the province, with the former patting itself on the back for hiring additional health care workers, including doctors from the U.S., while the latter says it is not enough to address the staffing shortages and burnout felt by frontline workers.
This has been an ongoing political issue for both sides and has become a battleground of contrasting opinions, with Health Minister Jeremy Cockrill touting their investments in international recruitment and local training. At the same time, Labour Shadow Minister Nathaniel Teed argues that improving working conditions and retaining health care professionals should be their main focus before hiring new ones.
Teed said investments should also be made for health care workers who are already serving patients, and argued that the government's physician recruitment campaign failed to produce meaningful results despite significant spending. He referred to a recruitment drive in the U.S. that he said cost $235,000 was spent to hire three physicians, comparing it to other provinces who had greater success with their initiatives.
"Why are other provinces succeeding, whilst Saskatchewan keeps falling further and further behind? Nova Scotia recruited 37 American physicians in a single year. British Columbia recruited more than 400 physicians, nurses and other health care workers through its international campaign,” said Teed, the Saskatoon Meewasin MLA.
He added that even Manitoba spent less money than Saskatchewan on its overseas recruitment mission and returned with a total of 37 physicians and 29 paramedics from the US and the United Kingdom. He further argued that recruitment and retention are inseparable, especially when provincial health care workers continue to face chronic staffing shortages, increasing workloads and burnout.
Teed said that many workers feel unsupported by the government, which makes it harder to attract new doctors and nurses to move to the province for employment, and questioned the government about how it can expect to hire new health care professionals if they can not retain those who are currently employed.
Cockrill, meanwhile, defended the government's approach, saying local recruitment and training remain central to Saskatchewan's long-term workforce strategy, with every student graduating from health care programs in the province having employment opportunities in urban, rural and northern communities.
"As we train those who grow up in this province or live in this province, they have a deep connection to wanting to serve their neighbours and family members. We need to make sure that we have training opportunities here in Saskatchewan,” said Cockrill.
Cockrill highlighted the government’s decision to expand its education and training capacity, including 20 additional undergraduate medical school seats, a 47 per cent increase in nurse practitioner training seats, and additional residency positions in rural communities, saying that growing the local workforce is the best opportunity for long-term retention because many graduates choose to remain home.
"We're putting students through training programs, and then they have a really strong reason—maybe emotionally because they grew up here—but financially we need to make it very attractive," said Cockrill, who added that physician recruitment will continue to focus on hard-to-fill positions. In contrast, international recruitment efforts concentrate on the United Kingdom and Ireland.
He said that Saskatchewan has recently seen encouraging and successful results in recruiting from the UK and Ireland. At the same time, the success of their hiring plan will be measured through ensuring locally trained graduates stay and practise in Saskatchewan.
"The focus is going to remain on our hardest-to-recruit professions. This is about adding more training seats and then keeping an eye on our numbers to ensure that those graduating from training programs in Saskatchewan stay in Saskatchewan,” said Cockrill.
While both sides agree Saskatchewan needs more health care professionals to meet the demands of a growing population, they differ sharply on how to achieve that goal.
The government says expanding education, residency positions and targeted recruitment will strengthen the workforce over time, while the Opposition argues the province's recruitment strategy will continue to fall short unless it first addresses wages, workloads, burnout and retaining the health care workers already on the front lines.
