Ontario hospitals have spent more than $9 billion on for-profit staffing agencies in last decade, report says

A new report says southwestern Ontario hospitals have increased use of for-profit agencies - CTV London's Bryan Bicknell has the details.

If you find yourself being treated in an Ontario hospital, there is a chance the nurses caring for you are not hospital staff, but private sector nurses working for a staffing agency.

Doris Grinspun, the CEO of the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario, says that’s how patient care takes a hit.

“But if you are my patient, I work with you every day, I know you well. Even if you don’t tell me you’re feeling worse I can notice before even symptoms show up. Verses, if I’m an agency nurse, I don’t know you the same, so I cannot detect those small signs,” Grinspun explained.

A new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) says public hospitals have paid $9.2 billion over the last decade to for-profit staffing agencies. Report author Andrew Longhurst says contracting-out can cost hospitals three times that of hiring permanent staff.

“Increasingly, a lot of hospitals, even in our urban centres, are using private staffing agencies to ensure that emergency departments can stay open, and filling the vacancies because wages have not kept pace,” he said.

Longhurst says that in the southwest region, which includes London, in the fiscal year 2022-2023, public hospitals spent $52 million dollars on for-profit staffing agencies for contracted labour.

The provincial Ministry of Health paints a very different picture of nursing at Ontario hospitals. In a statement to CTV News, Ema Popovic, spokesperson for Minister of Health, Sylvia Jones, said the following:

Grinspun, said if in fact the ratio of contracted staff is under two per cent, that makes the situation even more egregious.

“So, I will take them for their face value, whether it is true or not. And that means the agencies are making even more, more money on the backs of patients,” said Grinspun.

The MOH statement also said:

The CCPA report calls for an immediate $2 billion increase in hospital base funding. In the longer term it says private staffing agencies should be phased out and banned within three years.

“This is something that Quebec is planning to do by next year,” said Longhurst. “They will have legislated them out of business. And so that’s the direction that I think we need to take in this province,” he said.

The report recommends a public sector alternative to agencies, to ensure temporary staff are available to prevent closures and other disruptions.