A temporary solution for the service disruptions in rural Saskatchewan healthcare facilities has been implemented, but not everyone is happy with the outcome.

We first heard about travel nurses last week from CUPE who says travel CCAs, LPNs and RNs are working alongside Saskatchewan residents doing the same job, but they make a lot more money.

Kim Custer, a councillor from the RM of Glenside, spoke about the topic to Health Minister Paul Merriman at the SARM convention that just took place in Saskatoon.

Custer stated that these nurses are receiving the $120-$150 an hour, and that is not good for the morale of the province’s own healthcare workers.

Merriman replied by stating that the $120-$150 an hour does not all go to the travel nurses, some of it goes to the agencies they work for. In addition, initiatives to replenish rural healthcare facilities are in place.

He says these include over 72 graduating nurses from Saskatchewan schools entering the work force and up to $50,000 over a three-year return-to-service as an incentive for nurses to go to hard-to-recruit areas.

Merriman says the travel nurses are a temporary solution, but for now they must remain because pulling 100 nurses from the system at once would create service disruptions.

CUPE pointed out that some already employed living-and-working-in-Saskatchewan health care professionals are contemplating joining the ranks of their travel counterparts to get paid more working outside the province.