Look who needs nurses now

Re: “Poor working conditions causing nurses to quit public sector: report” (Montreal Gazette, Sept. 17)

It is hard not to be reminded of the Parti Québécois fiasco when nurses were offered early retirement packages, supposedly as a money-saving project.

Now Premier François Legault says he's ready to offer financial incentives to persuade 4,000 nurses to return to the public system.

To our detriment, many of our wonderful nurses went on to work elsewhere in Canada and the U.S., with many doctors following suit, while hospital beds here were shut.

All this while our population was aging and we knew we would be needing more medical care than ever.

COVID has exacerbated the situation, and now the government plans to spend “a few hundred million dollars” to lure retired nurses back.

Those who look to save us money in order to look good in the moment are often short-sighted and end up costing us money and so much more in the long run. Sandra Sterling, Montreal