As N.L. tries to recruit Irish doctors, Ireland is dealing with some familiar health-care problems

A team from Newfoundland and Labrador is heading to Ireland to convince health-care professionals in that country to accept a job on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean — but their mission comes as that country faces its own health-care crisis.

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Minister Tom Osborne will lead a team of 11 recruiters on a six-day trip to four Irish cities.

"Because of the similarities in training and culture, we look to Ireland," he told CBC News. "We certainly feel and hope that there will be significant interest amongst health-care professionals in Ireland."

Osborne said the team is primarily focused on finding physicians but is also looking to recruit health-care workers in other areas, including nursing. 

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Osborne's mission to Ireland isn't the province's first international recruitment endeavour. Late last year, Premier Andrew Furey announced the provincial government would set up a nursing recruitment office in India.

Osborne said the provincial government's efforts need to be aggressive.

"I wish we didn't have to try and recruit internationally, but it is a reality of where we are today," he said.

Osborne said the provincial government will be offering incentives to convince Irish doctors to come to Newfoundland and Labrador, though he didn't give details. 

"We feel that we can be competitive," he said.

He pointed to lower housing costs and shorter commutes as potential benefits.

A perfect storm

The trip comes after the province's medical association released numbers showing that more than 136,000 people in Newfoundland and Labrador don't have a family doctor. The province's health-care system is also grappling with shortages of nurses, allied health professionals and others.

According to a Dublin physician speaking on behalf of the union that represents Irish doctors, those are familiar problems in the Irish health-care system, which is also facing an overcrowding crisis in emergency departments.

"There's a perfect storm happening at the moment. We are hit with serious difficulties in the working environment in the Irish health-care service. Doctors are suffering extreme burnout," said Dr. Matthew Sadlier, chair of the consultant committee for the Irish Medical Organisation.

Sadlier said Newfoundland and Labrador isn't the first outside jurisdiction to come knocking for Irish health-care workers — hundreds of Irish doctors moved to Australia last year, for example.

"Canada is one of the countries that is very attractive that people want to go to; Australia's another country that's very attractive that people want to go to, New Zealand obviously as well, and then a certain number of people go to the United States as well," he said.

Sadlier said a further exodus of health-care professionals will make problems in the Irish medical system worse.

"It is quite worrying that our doctors may be leaving us," he said.

Underlying causes

Interim NDP Leader Jim Dinn told CBC News the provincial government's mission to Ireland is ironic given the crisis in health care in that country.

He expressed doubt in the provincial government's ability to retain health-care workers it does recruit.

"Until you start addressing the underlying causes here that are driving our own nurses out of the profession into becoming casual, into become travel nurses with a private firm, then I think we're not really going to solve the problem," he said. 

Dinn wants the provincial government to do more to retain current staff and bring those who have left back to the system.

"I still think we need a commitment here as to what we're going to do to make sure that when you come back that we're … going to listen to you, we're going to listen to the concern you have, we're going to address it," he said.

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