Furey's Dubai trip under fire from health workers' unions, who say staffing solutions can be found at home

Premier Andrew Furey recently travelled to the Middle East to lure health-care workers to Newfoundland and Labrador, but union representatives say they'd like to see more effort retaining workers already in the province.

Late last week Furey headed to Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to attend the Canadian Health Attraction Recruitment Mission. In a statement, he said it was "an opportunity to showcase Newfoundland and Labrador as an ideal place for health-care professionals to work and live."

Not everyone is impressed by his trip, however.

Association of Allied Health Professionals spokesperson Erin Curran wrote in a statement that the union is "frustrated beyond measure with the premier's recent trip to Dubai and the celebratory tone used to position this trip as a demonstration of government's commitment to strengthening healthcare in this province."

While recruitment is important, Curran said it can't be a bigger priority than retention. She also called the premier's framing of Newfoundland and Labrador as a great place to work as "very misleading at best," pointing to hundreds of health care workers she says are close to leaving their jobs.

The backlash comes amid bargaining turmoil within the industry.

Three weeks ago, the health professionals' union — which represents an array of workers including physiotherapists, pharmacists and psychologists — walked away from contract talks with the provincial government. At the time, AAHP president Gordon Piercey said the union would be focusing on mobilizing its 800 members.

Members would still need to vote in favour of a strike.

"Our members are outraged and feel this is just another example of how little they are valued, appreciated and respected by their employer, especially since the premier has yet to make any effort to communicate with the AAHP," wrote Curran.

While Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees president Jerry Earle applauded Furey for going to Dubai to recruit, he said it shows how serious the problem is regarding the "vast number of vacancies" in health care.

He'd like to see what he called a "homegrown solution" for more on-the-ground efforts to convince people to choose to work in health care in the province.

"Yes, we have to rely on going international and that's not new. We've done that. But good on the premier for doing that piece," Earle told CBC News.

"But then the big piece in this province, we have to sit down and come up with a solution that's made right here in Newfoundland Labrador, to use that term."

Earle said he's spoken with nursing and social worker students who told him they haven't been approached by the government for work. In one class, he was told that recruiters from Nova Scotia had been around, but no one from Newfoundland and Labrador.