Audit coming on travel nurse firm flagged for possible fraud, says N.L. health CEO

ST. JOHN’S – The head of Newfoundland and Labrador’s health authority says a review is coming soon of invoices paid to a private travel nurse agency flagged for possible billing fraud by the province’s auditor general.

Dr. Pat Parfrey said he expects to receive the final audit report “in the near future,” though he did not provide specifics.

The chief executive officer of Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services said it will be up to the provincial government to decide whether or not the report will be made public.

“Ultimately, I’ll end up having to communicate with the Department of Health and Community Services to work out what would be the most appropriate way to deal with the results of the audit,” Parfrey said in a recent interview.

Newfoundland and Labrador was at the heart of an investigation by the Globe and Mail newspaper in 2024 showing how some provinces were increasingly relying on what are called travel nurses. These nurses are employed by private companies, through which they are contracted for temporary work in locations across the country, often filling in during staff shortages.

In June, Newfoundland and Labrador’s auditor general released a report saying the province spent nearly one-quarter of a billion dollars on agency nurses from 2022 to 2024. The report said the auditor found “strong indications of potential billing fraud” by a company referred to as “Agency A.”

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services then hired Deloitte Canada to examine invoices and payments related to Agency A. A news release said Deloitte’s audit was expected to be completed by October.

That timeline was adjusted “as part of the audit process to ensure a complete and thorough final report,” said spokesperson Mikaela Etchegary in a recent email.

Parfrey said the health authority was scaling back its use of travel nurses in the meantime. He said he expected Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services to spend less than $80 million on agency nurses this fiscal year, compared to more than $130 million in 2024-25.

Parfrey added he expects more than 300 new nurses will be trained this year, the majority of which will be recruited to work for the health authority.

Yvette Coffey, president of the union representing registered nurses in the province, said the reduction in travel nurse spending would be good news if it doesn’t result in mandated overtime for all the other nurses. Coffey said nurses working for the health authority are regularly mandated to work shifts of between 12 and 24 hours, especially around the holidays.

Coffey said she recently heard of a nurse who had to work a 30-hour shift.

“We are jeopardizing not only the safety of nursing and other health-care professionals, but the patients who are in their care,” Coffey said in an interview.

Newfoundland and Labrador’s new Progressive Conservative government gave an update on the province’s finances earlier this month, saying heath-care costs would likely be $400 million more than anticipated at the beginning of the fiscal year in April.

Parfrey said the health authority is on track to spend about $3.8 billion in the current fiscal year, which is about what it spent in the last one.

He said, however, that the former Liberal government budgeted only about $3.4 billion for Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services in the current fiscal year.

“The important thing from our perspective is that we’re not actually overspending,” he said. “We projected a spend similar to last year.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 22, 2025.