‘Unconscionable’: Manitoba on pace to surpass $60M on private nurse spending

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This article was published 24/01/2024 (593 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

MANITOBA spent more than $35 million on private agency nurses in the first half of this fiscal year, putting it on track to surpass its $60 million total from 2022-23.

By region, spending on private nurses was highest in Prairie Mountain Health: $13.8 million from April to September 2023. The provincial total has soared from roughly $14.5 million in 2017-18, according to Shared Health data.

The outpouring of public funds is described as “unconscionable” by the Manitoba Nurses Union.

At the same time, the provincial health minister blames the previous Tory government, saying the expenditures reflect the reality that nurses are being driven out of the public system and into the private sector.

One of those — a former Winnipeg Regional Health Authority nurse who left the public health-care system to start her own agency about two years ago — said the prospect of setting her own schedule propelled her to do it.

Winnipeg-based Triple E Health Care and Nursing Services now employs 36 staff and has 16 nurses and health-care aides on its roster for shift assignments in hospitals and personal care homes, chief executive officer Gertrude Nyachoti said.

Most of the shifts it is called upon to fill are in the Interlake, Nyachoti said, adding she gets more than 100 emails daily from Manitoba health facilities seeking a boost to staffing.

Although agency work is better-paying, Nyachoti said she doesn’t believe it’s the main reason nurses pick up such shifts.

“The flexibility is more important than the money,” said Nyachoti, who still works as a nurse to keep her licence active after nearly 18 years in the public system.

“I do realize the need for agency nurses and I do realize that nurses are leaving the mainstream workforce because of, mainly, scheduling. I, myself, had to do that because of that,” she said, referencing mandated overtime. “It’s like you’re in the army: you go to work but you don’t know when you’re going to come out of it.”

“It’s like you’re in the army: you go to work but you don’t know when you’re going to come out of it.”

In Prairie Mountain (the southwest region that includes Brandon and Dauphin), for example, depending on a nurse’s level of experience, the pay rate starts around $40 per hour and tops out around $50/hr.

Nurses who pick up shifts for agencies can make roughly $50 per hour — depending on the agency — plus per diem and coverage for mileage and travel costs.

Agency nurses aren’t unionized, don’t get employee benefits and don’t pay into a group pension plan.

“I pick where I work, when I work and for how long,” said one Winnipeg nurse, who occasionally works for agencies during time off from her regular hospital position.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the nurse said she gets 30-40 emails every day from agencies advertising available shifts.

She spoke of a rewarding feeling that comes from doing agency work at a rural facility that may otherwise have to temporarily shut its doors for lack of staff.

Extra hourly pay negotiated in the most recent Manitoba Nurses Union contract, plus night and weekend premiums and risk pay for ER and ICU nurses, means the rate “is not substantially better” as an agency nurse, she added.

However, a decreased workload is worth the travel. “There isn’t a nurse out there that is doing any of what we’re doing solely for money.”

“There isn’t a nurse out there that is doing any of what we’re doing solely for money.”

Meantime, NDP Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said the government is trying to change the culture so more nurses will want to work in the public health-care system.

Blaming the previous Progressive Conservative government for driving nurses out and forcing increased reliance on agency workers, Asagwara emphasized the importance of work-life balance.

“We’re listening to nurses every single day and we see that nurses are returning to the public health-care system as a result,” the minister said in an interview.

In a written statement, Opposition health critic Kathleen Cook (Roblin), described staffing as the most pressing need in health care, saying the NDP has no plan.

“Despite crying foul about this issue while in opposition, nothing has been done thus far to address the need for agency nurse spending or to bring more health-care workers into the public system.”

In a statement, the Manitoba Nurses Union decried the millions spent on private agency workers, adding recruitment and retention incentives need to be “enhanced.”

“This figure should shock Manitobans. While I truly believe there is a time and place for travel nurses, such as in the more remote communities, allowing for-profit agencies to consume such a significant amount of what could be invested into our public system is unconscionable,” MNU president Darlene Jackson said.

Agencies themselves always need more nurses, due to the volume of requests from health authorities, Nyachoti said, adding she, too, would like to see a solution to staffing shortages.

However, amid criticism of Manitoba’s reliance on private nurses, Nyachoti said she doesn’t know where those non-agency health workers are going to come from.

“I don’t know where we’re going to get the staff to be able to fill all these (public) positions… Nurses are leaving the mainstream (system) because of the workload — so unless this workload problem is sorted out, then I don’t know.”

For now, she said, the agencies are the solution.

“There’s need, and being able to go out and do what I like at my own time and at my own will, I think, is more valuable. I do feel like we as agency nurses make a difference in people’s lives,” Nyachoti said.

“When you go into these rural places, you see how nurses are struggling. And when nurses are struggling, it’s the patient that suffers the most. So for me, to be able to make that difference, gives me some kind of satisfaction.”

— with files from Danielle Da Silva

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com

Katie May
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Katie May is a multimedia producer for the Free Press.

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