New Brunswick’s health minister says the province is considering a regional travel nurse agency in the Maritimes, weeks after P.E.I.’s health minister first mentioned the idea to reporters.
Travel nurses take temporary nursing positions in hospitals or facilities that are facing staff shortages.
“Yes, we are looking at that. It’s a novel idea, perhaps a good one,” said New Brunswick Minister of Health John Dornan.
“We are not committed to going that route at this point in time, but I can commit that we are looking at it. No news today.”
But the idea isn’t receiving such a warm welcome from the unions representing nurses in the provinces.
Paula Doucet, president of the New Brunswick Nurses’ Union, says she hasn’t been contacted by provincial officials and believes New Brunswick isn’t considering its recent collective agreement, which was signed with nurses last fall.
“Before they even contemplate putting this into practice, we’d demand that we all be at the table. I mean this has implications for all our unions across all these provinces,” said Doucet.
As well, there is still ongoing fallout from the introduction of private nursing services in New Brunswick.
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In June 2024, an auditor general’s report found that between Jan. 1, 2022, and Feb. 29, 2024, Vitalité Health Network paid more than $123 million for private nursing services, including $98 million to Canadian Health Labs.
The francophone health agency spent the most on travel nurses out of three government bodies under audit.
Dornan said at the time the contract was costly and “unfair” to taxpayers.
Last spring, the province passed legislation to cancel the travel nurse contracts. Canadian Health Labs filed a lawsuit alleging breach of contract.
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“Since they’ve started, we’ve all been talking about how to eliminate them,” Doucet said about travel nursing contracts.
In Nova Scotia, the nurses’ union questions how the public regional travel nurse agency would work.
“I’m happy that governments are starting to say we need to get control of the use of our travel nurses. However having a regional travel nurse, I’m not sure how it would work,” said Nova Scotia Nurses Union president, Janet Hazelton.
“Who’s the employer? Benefits, for example, are all different, pension plans are all different, the money that the nurses make in the … different provinces again are different, so I don’t think it can work.”
In an emailed statement, Nova Scotia’s health minister, Michelle Thompson, says the province is committed to stabilizing the health workforce, including piloting an internal travel nurse team.
But she says it’s premature to discuss the proposal and that more information and discussions are required.
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