Health minister defends use of private agency nurses

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This article was published 20/04/2022 (1445 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon is counting on newly graduated nurses to wean the province and regional health authorities off private agency staff.

Gordon said she is focused on ensuring post-secondary institutions open up new nursing seats to address chronic staff shortages, after the Free Press reported the government spent up to $3.3 million monthly on agency nurses in the past fiscal year.

“As we increase the number of new nurses coming into the system, that need for agency nurses will naturally decrease,” Gordon told reporters following question period Wednesday. “But until that is done, those shifts have to be filled.”

Over the past two years, many nurses had to be redeployed to assist in the COVID-19 response, Gordon said.

“Those positions needed to be back-filled to ensure that Manitobans who were accessing those clinics and those programs receive the care that they need,” the health minister said, in defence of her government’s spending.

Gordon once again pointed to spending by the former NDP government on agency nurses, arguing the previous administration must have recognized there was an issue after running up expenses on temporary workers. The Progressive Conservatives have been in power since May 2016.

Asked whether she agrees the Tory government’s spending on agency staff is also of concern, Gordon said she wants the number of nurses on the public payroll to increase as quickly as possible.

However, the speed at which the province will reduce its reliance on private agency nurses will depend on how fast it can move students through nursing school and into the labour force, she said.

“It’s making the profession as attractive as possible so that individuals want to enter the profession and work in the system.”

Earlier in the day, Premier Heather Stefanson said investing in nurses “regardless of public or private” is what needs to be done in Manitoba.

The comment came during question period after NDP Leader Wab Kinew challenged the premier to explain why spending up to $40 million annually on private agency nurses was appropriate.

The Opposition leader said the health-care system needs to be rebuilt and Manitobans want the government to direct its money toward nurses on the public, not private, payroll.

“If we see this government continue to go down the route of private health care with nursing agencies, we’re going to see that staffing crisis get exacerbated, it is going to get worse,” Kinew said.

“The premier is offside with the will of the people of this province when she says they’re just going to proceed regardless of whether it’s public or regardless of whether it’s private.”

danielle.dasilva@freepress.mb.ca