NDP Leader Carla Beck says if elected, her government will spend $1.1 billion to train, retain and hire more doctors, nurses and specialists in the public healthcare system.

Beck notes that out-of-province contract nurses are getting paid a higher rate which is weakening morale amongst regular staff. She repeated a promise to establish a Nursing Task Force to ensure health care workers are at the table where decisions are being made.

At a Regina news conference on Monday, the NDP leader quoted recent statistics from the Canadian Institute of Health Information. It said Saskatchewan ranks last in the country for both surgical wait times and healthcare worker retention. In addition, there were 1,760 registered nurses in rural Saskatchewan this year compared to 2,234 when Scott Moe became Premier in 2018.

‘The Sask. Party has not hired enough doctors and nurses,” Beck said. “We’re losing out to other provinces. We don’t have enough frontline workers to serve our population.”

An NDP news release also states the provincial government’s career page had 1,100 vacant healthcare job postings but less than half are full-time.