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Regina is desperately short of nuclear medicine technologists, a situation that is delaying critical testing of everything from cancer to heart blockages, according to the union that represents the health workers.
“If you come to this department you will see half of this equipment sitting empty because they don’t have people to run them,” said Bashir Jalloh, president of CUPE local 5430, which represents nuclear medicine technologists in the city.
Jalloh said workers are leaving for higher paying jobs in Alberta, Manitoba and British Columbia, where senior technologists can make as much as $15 more per hour for doing the same job.
“They leave the province because the wage is one of the lowest in Canada. It’s the lowest in Western Canada right now,” Jalloh said.
Nuclear technologists perform the tests that diagnose cancer, or reveal if it’s metastasized. Their imaging also shows heart, kidney and other organ function, providing critical information for doctors in formulating a patient’s treatment plan.
Jalloh, himself a nuclear medical technologist, said people in Regina are waiting as long as 18 months for some of those results because there aren’t enough workers to perform the tests, delaying treatment and increasing patient anxiety.
Out of 18 nuclear medicine technologist positions in Regina, seven are vacant, Jalloh said.
“It’s a crisis. It’s a staffing crisis in this department,” Jalloh said.
The issue recently hit the desk of the opposition NDP, which received a document outlining the staffing shortages in the city.
“Those departments are operating at 50 to 70 per cent of their available capacity,” NDP MLA Jacqueline Roy told reporters, echoing Jalloh’s assertion that the workers are leaving Saskatchewan for higher paying jobs in Alberta, British Columbia and Manitoba.
“We have the equipment. We have patients and doctors waiting for vital treatment information, but we don’t have the health care workers to operate the equipment to get those answers,” Roy said.
NDP MLA Jacqueline Roy says staff shortages are delaying test results for cancer and heart disease. (Germain Wilson CBC)
In an emailed statement, a spokesperson for the provincial government said it is committed to providing quality care to people in Saskatchewan. The province’s numbers showed six of the 18 nuclear medicine technology positions as vacant.
The statement went on to say that recruiting nuclear medicine technologists is a top priority.
“Saskatchewan is offering up to $15,000 to post-secondary students studying in high-priority classifications, such as nuclear medicine, to return to Saskatchewan to work,” the statement read.
A nuclear medicine technologist with 30 years experience tops out at a salary of $39.22 per hour in Regina, Jalloh said.
That’s well below their counterparts in Alberta, who make $54.78 per hour as a top wage.
“It’s terrible,” Jalloh said.
“The only people who are left have two to three years left [until retirement]. They don’t want to risk their pension. Or the techs that are new, they are coming in, they want to get their experience and get the hell out of here,” Jalloh said.
“Morale is extremely low.”
Last month, CUPE health-care workers voted 99 per cent in favour of job action, citing lack of wage increases.
Jalloh said the Saskatchewan Health Authority hasn’t responded to CUPE representatives who have reached out with concerns about the vacant nuclear medicine technologist positions.
“It’s a shame. It’s a shame that we cannot afford to attract and retain people to look after our people in this province.”