N.S. spending tens of millions of dollars on private nursing companies for long-term care

As Nova Scotia tries to deal with a shortage of health-care professionals that has put the entire health system under strain, the province is devoting tens of millions of dollars toward the services of "travel nurses."

The provincial government is paying the private contract nurses at least double the hourly wage of public-sector nurses. The higher pay often comes with greater flexibility in scheduling, which some nurses say is attracting many early career staff to move out of the public sector — even as health officials grapple with recruitment and retention.

Travel nurses, who are sometimes known as "agency" or "locum" staff, are health-care workers who are employed by private companies that provide extra nursing staff where they're needed.

Many companies will fly nurses around the country on short- or long-term contracts, often working within public-sector hospitals and long-term care homes. The nurses are required to be registered and licensed to work in the province where they're sent, including in Nova Scotia.

But in some provinces where travel nurses are being employed, unionized nurses have raised concerns about the practice.

Starting in late 2021, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nova Scotia's Department of Seniors and Long-term Care turned to travel nurses to supplement staffing at long-term care homes around the province.

"We had a lot of staffing shortages historically in this sector, and Omicron just made it that much more difficult," Barbara Adams, the minister of seniors and long-term care, said, referring to the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19.

The department allocated $3.1 million in December 2021 for travel nurses. After the Omicron wave began, the department had to increase the amount by $18.4 million, which Adams said is on track to be completely spent within this budget year.

"We had a lot of beds closed in the sector, and that was creating problems for the acute care sector," the minister told CBC News in a recent interview.

According to a briefing note obtained by CBC News, by March 11, 2022, there were 247 long-term care beds closed due to staffing issues. This was around the time an increasing number of health-care staff were off sick due to COVID-19. At least 296 patients were waiting in hospital for a nursing home bed placement.

The Department of Seniors and Long-term Care said that as of Nov. 15, 36 long-term care beds were closed due to staffing. As of late September, there were 284 people waiting in hospital for a long-term care placement.

"What we needed to do was to bring in travel nurses wherever they're needed across the province so that we can keep our nursing home beds open," Adams said.

The move has drawn the attention of the Nova Scotia Nurses' Union.

"Travel nurses have been around for several years but not used very much, mostly in acute care and mostly in our rural settings," union president Janet Hazelton said. In the last two years, she said she's seen an increased reliance on travel nurses.