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8mo ago

Canada's Spending on For-Profit Nursing Agencies to Exceed $1.5 Billion This Year

A new report reveals a six-fold increase in costs over three years, highlighting critical staffing shortages and lack of oversight.

Nurses march through the streets of Charlottetown in June 2023 protesting the understaffing crisis afflicting Canadian public health care.
A medical bed is photographed in the trauma bay during simulation training at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto on, August 13, 2019. A Montreal civil rights organization says a Quebec program to recruit and train nurses from overseas is leaving some participants in dire straits. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ Tijana Martin
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Overview

  • Public health facilities in Canada are projected to spend over $1.5 billion on for-profit nursing agencies in the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
  • This spending surge represents a six-fold increase from $247.9 million in 2020-2021, exacerbating the health staffing crisis.
  • Agency nurses are increasingly used in critical care units, emergency departments, and rural hospitals, filling gaps left by a shortage of permanent staff.
  • The rise in agency nurse usage is driven by poor working conditions, mandatory overtime, and wages that fail to keep up with inflation, pushing nurses to seek better pay and flexibility.
  • Recommendations include phasing out agency reliance, establishing government-run temporary nurse services, and implementing standardized procedures and accountability measures.