Calls for province to expand core staffing review to include Allied Health Professionals
The Association of Allied Health Professionals is calling on the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador to expand its newly announced “core staffing review” to include the province’s many allied health professionals—critical frontline workers whose expertise is essential to safe, efficient, and high-quality patient care.
The AAHP welcomes any initiative aimed at strengthening the health-care workforce. However, the union is very concerned that significant gaps will be overlooked unless the review includes all health professionals who play a vital role across the broader health-care teams. Without a full interdisciplinary staffing assessment, AAHP warns the province risks implementing solutions that fail to address the root causes of patient delays, service disruptions, and system-wide strain.
“Allied health professionals are not optional add-ons to the system— they are essential to diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, mental health, and safe discharge,” said Gord Piercey, President of AAHP. “A staffing review that excludes allied health leaves out a massive part of what patients rely on every day.”
Allied health professionals include respiratory therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, dietitians, social workers, pharmacists, speech-language pathologists, and dozens of other highly specialized clinicians. These professions provide the diagnostics, therapies, and critical supports that make timely care—and effective nursing and physician work—possible.
Yet many allied health services across the province face:
- chronic staffing shortages
- unsustainable workloads
- recruitment and retention challenges
- burnout and high vacancy rates
- service delays and temporary shutdowns
“If the goal is to improve patient care, create safer workplaces, and stabilize the system, then the staffing review must be expanded,” said Piercey. “You cannot build a sustainable health-care workforce by examining one profession in isolation.”
AAHP is urging the province to:
- Expand the core staffing review to include all allied health occupations.
- Establish profession-specific staffing benchmarks, like those being considered for nursing.
- Consult directly with AAHP during workforce planning, ensuring accurate data and real frontline insight.
- Develop targeted recruitment and retention strategies for allied-health professions experiencing the most severe shortages.
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