Furey says $36M for travel nurse contracts 'may be problematic,' province is investigating

Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey said Wednesday afternoon the provincial government is going to investigate multimillion-dollar contracts with private nursing agencies — contracts he said "may be problematic."

A recent Globe and Mail report revealed the government spent $35.6 million on nurses from private agencies within the span of just a few months, and shelled out cash for travel nurses' training, cable bills and a variety of other expenses. 

Furey said contracts were entered into by the four regional health authorities, now amalgamated into N.L. Health Services. But the health authority reports to the treasury board, he said, which provides it with an annual budget. 

He said the contract with private Toronto-based company Canadian Health Labs may be troublesome, so he's asked the health minister to investigate and is "anxiously awaiting" what he learns from the health authority.

"Sometimes things go off the rails for whatever reason," he said.

NDP health critic Lela Evans said the Liberal government reacts only when things are made public. She said she "felt ill" after reading the report.

"It's upsetting and disheartening all at once," she said.

'Nobody wants travel nurses'

Furey said Wednesday that travel nurses are an economic burden and can cause inefficiencies in the medical system but are necessary to fill gaps in a strained health-care system. 

The health authority often has to choose between using travel nurses or shutting down emergency departments or hospital wards.

"Nobody wants travel nurses," he said.

WATCH | Andrew Furey defends the government's use of private nurses: 

We had to hire travel nurses or shut down ERs and hospitals, Furey says

9 months ago

Duration 1:22

Premier Andrew Furey told reporters Wednesday that while “there is nobody who wants travel nurses,” he said it was necessary in the immediate time after the strictest of measures of the COVID-19 pandemic. His comments come in response to a report that N.L. health authorities spent $36 million on private agencies in a few months.

Furey said some of the contracts with private nursing agencies were awarded in 2021, when the system was in "full crisis" due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Maybe things were rushed in order to provide the continued level of care that was needed during a very anxious and stressed time," he said.

Jerry Earle, president of the Newfoundland and Labrador Association of Public and Private Employees, which represents almost 10,000 health-care workers, said giving private agencies millions of dollars was an opportunity for large businesses to capitalize on the pandemic.

"It's unbelievable, jaw-dropping," he said. "Our members are extremely upset."

Earle said permanent health-care workers told him there have been instances when they have been told "quite aggressively" by their employers that they have to go to work no matter the weather. It seems to be an entirely different story for travel nurses, he said, who were at times provided with transportation to and from work.

He said he believes the regional health authorities didn't follow proper protocols and an auditor general's investigation should be carried out to determine how the private agency contracts were put in place. 

Evans said Labrador has relied on travel nurses for a while because the provincial government hasn't made long-term investments in public health care. When other areas began relying on travel nurses, she said Labrador had challenges keeping up with demand, which is affecting the quality of its health-care system, coming to a head at Christmas in 2022.

"Central Labrador, the hospital there had to go on diversion where they weren't taking any patients, no emergencies, no medevacs was going to central Labrador," she said.

Labrador can't rely on travel nurses to stick around during the holidays, she said, and when nurses are constantly coming and going, they might not have sufficient knowledge of the region, its culture, or issues unique to certain communities.

She said she's been told of a nurse from the province who hasn't been able to plan her wedding because she doesn't know when she's going to be able to take time off. When Evans discovered the provincial government shelled out cash to pay for a variety of travel nurses' expenses, she said, it felt like a betrayal.

"To me, it's outrageous," she said. "This has been going on for years."

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