Manitoba not alone in leaning on private agency nurses

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This article was published 24/01/2024 (638 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba isn’t the only province to rely heavily on privately contracted nurses in recent years, but the cost varies.

Unions in several provinces have spoken out about growing reliance on nursing agencies and travel nurses (particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic) and governments have been taken to task over spending on the private contracts.

In Saskatchewan, spending on private nursing agencies was predicted to reach $40 million by the end of 2023, according to estimates by the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses.

The union obtained data, provided to the Free Press, which indicates Saskatchewan had spent $78.5 million over 2 1/2 years ending June 30, 2023. It spent roughly $45 million in 2022 — more than three times its 2021 total.

Manitoba’s spending on private nurse agencies jumped 50 per cent from 2021-22 to 2022-23. It was about $40 million in 2021-22, and $60 million in the last fiscal year.

Manitoba has spent $35 million in the first half of the current fiscal year (April to September 2023) and is on track to surpass its 2022-23 total.

“We have to get away from relying on agency nurse use across the province, but we’re not going to accomplish that through a mandate,” Premier Wab Kinew said Wednesday during a livestreamed news conference in Dauphin.

“We’re serious about improving work-life balance. Because you ask yourself: why does a nurse go to work at an agency? Because (of) more control over the scheduling, perhaps more pay, but again, they’re running away from the mistakes of the previous government — mandated overtime, disrespect from the employer,” Kinew said.

“These are the things that we’re turning the page on… Fixing the culture, retention in health care has to be the first priority.”

In Nova Scotia, spending on private nurse agencies this fiscal year has already surpassed $50 million. That figure includes not only registered and licensed practical travel nurses, but contracted clinical and operational support staff.

Nova Scotia (a population of roughly 970,000, compared with Manitoba’s 1.3 million) also logged a significant increase in private nurse agency costs last year. The cost more than tripled, jumping to $50.5 million from $12.5 million.

More nurses retired or left the profession following the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but more clinical operations resumed, so the province had to rely more on travel nurses to meet the demand, according to a statement from Nova Scotia Health, which provided the data Wednesday.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com