Manitoba cuts ties with dozens of private nursing agencies to curb reliance on the firms

A nurse is warning rural hospitals may have an even tougher time filling shifts in the new year as the Manitoba government ends its relationship with dozens of companies supplying its health-care system with agency nurses.

Manitoba will only work with four private agencies to fill vacant shifts at public health-care facilities starting Jan. 15. That's a sharp decline from the nearly 80 companies the health-care system currently contracts, health minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a recent interview.

Four companies — Elite Intellicare Staffing, Integra Health, Bayshore HealthCare, Augury Healthcare — won the right to work in Manitoba through a competitive bidding process, Shared Health, which co-ordinates health-care delivery in the province, confirmed.

The province is counting on the nurses already working for the dozens of private agencies to either take jobs with the four chosen agencies or preferably the public system, the minister said, but one agency nurse doesn't share the same optimism.

Melisa Dupont said she's heard from agency nurses, like herself, who are planning to leave Manitoba because of the changes.

"Even with the 70 agencies we did have, we couldn't fill all the needs, hence why I'm working 16-hour shifts," Dupont said.

"So how do they think cutting it down to four [agencies] is going to make it better?"

Asagwara said Manitoba has fostered a "cottage industry" with dozens of private, for-profit agencies springing up in recent years, squeezing the public system for millions of dollars in higher wages, travel fees and per diems.

The minister said dramatically scaling back the number of agencies, along with new policies to govern their operation and control costs, would give the province more control.

"We've heard stories of [private] nurses with not-the-right skills showing up at a site, unable to actually provide care because they weren't matched appropriately," Asagwara said.

"This approach is making sure that we've got vetted agencies whose approach and values are aligned with the standards of care that we should expect from Manitobans."

Dupont said the province has a number of reputable, homegrown agencies, including Happy Nursing Agency, which she works for, and now most of the chosen agencies are from out-of-province — and are "hounding" nurses to recruit them.

The calls are coming day and night. "My one girlfriend was like, 'I have to tell them to leave me alone,'" she said.

Asagwara has made no secret of their desire for private agency nurses to move to the public system, and they say the new plan is already having the desired effect.