Health Minister Tom Osborne says placing an end date on travel agency nursing contracts could create larger problems than it solves.

The minister was responding to calls from NDP Leader Jim Dinn to address the system’s reliance on travel nurses, many of whom are working alongside public sector nurses at higher rates and with greater personal flexibility.

That has led to questions about how the use of agency nurses is adding to the cost of health care and creating challenges in recruitment and retention.

Minister Osborne says non-competes are in place that prevent agencies from poaching nurses, only to send them back into the public system.

However, Osborne told VOCM Open Line with Paddy Daly, placing an end date on travel nursing contracts, as has been suggested by Dinn, is problematic.

He says if NL was the only province to eliminate travel nurses, “we would lose.” Agency nurses, says Osborne, get a higher paycheck in lieu of benefits and pensions, and are willing to go where needed on a temporary basis.