Saskatchewan says health-care recruitment plan paying off, opposition questions results

Saskatchewan’s health minister says the province’s plan to attract new health-care workers is delivering results, with thousands of workers joining since its launch four years ago.

Jeremy Cockrill says over 7,500 health-care professionals, including nurses and doctors, have joined Saskatchewan’s workforce as part of the province’s Health Human Resources (HHR) Action Plan, launched in 2022, which focuses on accelerating efforts to attract and retain health-care workers.

As part of this plan, the province created the Saskatchewan Healthcare Recruitment Agency (SHRA) to streamline health-care recruitment efforts. Terri Strunk, the agency’s CEO, says it has been using targeted advertising campaigns to attract workers from outside the province, helping connect prospective health-care workers with recruiters.

“We have some physicians who notice those ads,” said Strunk. “What they do is visit our website, create a profile, and from there, our team notices them and begins working with them.”

But the province’s official Opposition is questioning whether the recruitment efforts are producing enough results, particularly after the province launched a campaign last year aimed at attracting physicians from the United States.

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“We’re continuing to spend taxpayers’ dollars and we’re not seeing any new health-care workers, no new physicians added to the rolls,” said Nathaniel Teed, NDP labour critic.

But Strunk defends the campaign, saying seven physicians who responded to the U.S.-focused recruitment efforts are currently moving through the hiring process.

“They’re in the process right now and it can take a good amount of time for the employers to work through those referrals,” she said.

Overall, the province says it has recruited 742 physicians, including 369 family physicians and 373 specialists, as well as 3,000 nurses, from countries like the U.S., Ireland, the United Kingdom and the Philippines since launching the action plan.

But the president of a union representing over 14,000 health-care workers in the province says the health ministry should prioritize its existing workforce before looking overseas.

“The first thing they have to do is to focus on what we are we gonna do to retain the current people we have, and when we do that, then we can embark on recruitment,” said Bashir Jalloh, president of CUPE Local 5430.

The comments come one week after the union announced its workers will vote on potential job action in September after over three and a half years of bargaining with its provincial employer.

Despite the ongoing labour negotiations, Cockrill says he remains optimistic about the bargaining process.

“I’m really confident that we are going to come to an agreement at all of our tables,” Cockrill said at a Tuesday press conference.

The province is continuing its international recruitment efforts, said Cockrill, adding that it will now shift its focus more toward the U.K. and Ireland and less toward the U.S., due to similarities between those health-care systems and Saskatchewan’s.

The province is planning a recruitment mission to the two countries this fall, said Cockrill.