The provincial government hopes to phase out the use of expensive agency nurses by next year, and NLHS says it has already cut back on reliance significantly.

Their rates of pay greatly exceed those of public nurses, a situation which has led to calls for the discontinuation of the practice.

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services CEO Pat Parfrey, who has been in the job for only a couple of weeks, says they’ve reduced the number of agency nurses by 42 per cent from its peak but, reducing that to zero may involve some tough choices. For example, cardiac surgery is augmented by three private nurses and cutting them would result in a reduction in the number of cardiac surgeries being performed.

In Corner Brook, the old Western Memorial is being renovated to allow beds for long-term and transitional care, and Parfrey has been hearing from unions who don’t want to see it staffed by private nurses.

He says they would err on the side of delivering care, so the question becomes, “when we open the unit in the old hospital in Corner Brook in six months, do we open the unit and have agency nurses, or do we not open the unit?”