Public health-care spending on private nursing agencies in B.C. costing millions, hurting patients: union

The BC Nurses’ Union says a growing provincial dependence on for-profit nursing agencies is not only costing the B.C. government more money — it’s also hurting patient care.

Union president Adriane Gear says health authorities are increasingly relying on these private agencies to alleviate staffing shortages. She says that while they provide a short-term solution, they shouldn’t be used consistently, given that a large portion of the cost goes directly into the agencies’ profits.

Gear says it isn’t clear how much the province is spending on these agencies.

“It’s gone up exponentially, year-over-year, and there isn’t transparency from the government or the health authorities in terms of how much they’re spending,” Gear said.

A report from the Canadian Federation of Nurses Union (CFNU) shows the number of short-term nurses contracted from private agencies has skyrocketed in the past five years.

The report says that nationally, health authorities have spent more than $1.5 billion on-for profit nursing agencies. In B.C., it was more than $162 million in 2022 — a 29 per cent increase compared with two years prior.

When 1130 NewsRadio asked for more recent numbers, the BC Ministry of Health said it didn’t have that data on hand.

The ministry says it put a moratorium on using new agencies in 2022, and says it has been working on an initiative to address the issue.

“In 2023, we created GoHealthBC, a provincial travel staffing program that operates through Northern Health to support high needs rural and remote communities,” the ministry said in a statement.

“This program helps reduce our reliance on private staffing agencies, and helps prevent emergency department closures.”

According to the statement, the GoHealthBC program is set to deploy the equivalent of 530 full-time nurses across 40 rural and remote communities.

Gear thinks the province would do better to fix consistent resource issues and violence in health-care facilities.

“Why don’t they just address the conditions of work for the nurses that are here in B.C.?” she said.

“Then more nurses will actually just stop quitting, and more nurses will come here.”