Spending on private agency nurses jumps

Manitoba paid private agency nurses to work the equivalent of 76.5 years to fill vacant nursing positions — and that was just during the first nine months of the 2023-24 fiscal year.

Shared Health recently released figures that show regional health authorities across the province hired agency nurses to work more than 670,000 hours in total, or 76.5 years, from April 1, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2023.

The number is part of data that shows private agency nurse spending across the province jumped from a total of $35.5 million at the end of the second quarter to a total of $56 million at the end of the third quarter on Dec. 31, 2023.

Among the five RHAs, the Prairie Mountain RHA spent $21 million at the end of the third quarter, the most in the province, for 261,157 hours of private agency nursing. That works out to be about $80.34 per hour.

Next was the Northern RHA, which spent $12.2 million for 111,504 hours of nursing, or $109.29 per hour; followed by the Interlake-Eastern RHA at $11.2 million for 142,288 hours, or $78.78; Southern RHA at $7.7 million for 97,175 hours or $78.69 per hour; and the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority at $4 million for 58,250 hours or $69.64 per hour.

The mid-range wage for a general duty registered nurse is around $45 per hour, according to the Manitoba Nurses Union.

Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says they are working hard to reduce spending on private agency nurses by regional health authorities by taking steps to encourage nurses to return to the public health care system.

Asagwara said they have spent their first six months in office meeting with nurses, putting more money into various key areas to increase their numbers and creating a public provincial float pool.

“Certainly, we want the spending for agency nurses to trend in the opposite direction,” they said on Friday.

“Our focus is on restoring trust with nurses, on repairing the relationship they have with the public system, and creating a culture in our health care system that they are excited to be a part of. We’ve taken several steps to support that happening and there is more work that we need to do.”

Asagwara said they know it will take time for the province to win back nurses, who in the past few years have left the public health care system in droves to become agency nurses, knowing they were leaving behind pensions, benefits and training opportunities.

“We have to give them a competitive offer,” they said. “We need to afford nurses the opportunity to have good work-life balance control over their schedules and workplace culture that they feel serves them well and allows them to provide quality care to their patients.”

Asagwara is pleased to see hundreds of nurses have already applied to be part of the provincial float pool, something that will reduce the number of agency nurse hours.

Molly McCracken, interim spokesperson for the Manitoba Health Coalition, said the province has to find a way to spend less on agency nurses.

“The skyrocketing expenses of for-profit agency nurses demonstrates how much the health care system is now relying on this once stop-gap measure,” McCracken said.

“The Manitoba government’s commitment to staff up health agencies with regular nurses needs to be an absolute priority. It will save public funding and improve consistency of care.”

Darlene Jackson, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union, said RHAs relying on agency nurses isn’t just because there is a “critical nursing shortage” in the province.

“It’s also because nurses are moving to agencies because they are working for a much higher salary,” Jackson said. “It’s also because of the workload nurses have and the lack of work-life balance.

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“This government has to figure out two things: how to compensate nurses to draw them back from the agencies and then figure out how to retain them.”

MLA Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservatives’ deputy leader, said in a statement she was not surprised to see the costs for agency nurses rise under the NDP government.

“The NDP were extremely vocal while in opposition about agency nurse spending, but have done nothing so far in government to reduce it,” Cook said.

“They have not brought forward a tangible plan to attract, train, or retain nurses in our public health care system… instead of pointing fingers, the NDP need to offer tangible incentives to bring in and keep more nurses in the public system to address the need for high agency nurse spending in the first place.”

A WRHA spokesperson said they could not comment at this time on why the amount spent on agency nurses jumped to more than $4 million during the first three quarters of the year, when at the end of the second quarter it was at $2.2 million.

A spokesperson said the numbers wouldn’t be finalized until after the full year so they could change.

At the end of the third quarter, Prairie Mountain Health, which includes Brandon, Dauphin and Swan River, had spent the most on agency nurses of any regional health authority in the province — a total of $21 million up from $13.8 million three months earlier.

Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said the change in agency costs is based on invoices paid out through the year as services are provided.

“Due to ongoing recruitment and retention challenges, it has been necessary for PMH to use nursing and health care aide agency services to continue to provide safe, quality care for our clients, patients and residents,” Slate said.

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“Due to the size of our region, agency costs in PMH have a significant component related to reimbursement of travel costs for agency staff.”

Meanwhile, Asagwara, who worked as a psychiatric nurse before being elected, said they know what it is like to be at work and suddenly be told you are working a double shift.

“I can recall having plans with a sibling or with family and at the last minute having to change those plans or missing out — I know the impacts of your life being disrupted in that way,” they said.

“Supporting them in having a better work-life balance is supporting them in being able to provide better care.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it is covering city hall, the law courts, or general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only answer the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to do it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.

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