Some serious questions are being asked, and the Opposition wants the Auditor General to conduct an investigation, after the Globe and Mail revealed that the provincial government gave $35.6 million dollars to a private company for the provision of travel nurses over a five month period to fill gaps in the NL health care system.
The Registered Nurses Union sounded the alarm over the amount of money being spent on travel nurses back in the fall.
According to the Globe and Mail, in some cases, nurses were paid hundreds of dollars an hour, well above the $34 to $42 dollars an hour paid to public sector nurses. Agency nurses who had to drive to the province were also paid for their mileage and hotel rooms.
The Globe and Mail also discovered that $1.6 million dollars was paid to the company for meal allowances, even though nurses were not able to claim meals under their contract, and the nurses they spoke with did not receive the money.
The company in question, Canadian Health Labs, wanted the province to pay the company to recruit 100 nurses from overseas. CHL’s contract would provide nurse practioners for $130 dollars an hour, but if the contract to recruit nurses wasn’t signed, then the company would charge $265 an hour for nurse practioners.
According to the Globe and Mail, “health officials declined, and invoices show Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services is paying the higher rate.”
Minister last month downplayed end date on travel nurse reliance
Health Minister Tom Osborne
In January, Health Minister Tom Osborne, responding to questions about ending the use of travel nurses, indicated putting an end date on the use of travel nurses could create more problems than it solves.
Opposition Leader Tony Wakeham is calling on the AG to review what he calls the “travel nursing fiasco.” Wakeham says an agency was paid seven times the pay of a public nurse, while also billing the province for other expenses – some of which wasn’t even paid out to nurses. “We have a serious problem on our hands,” says Wakeham.
