SUN takes aim at reliance on contract nurses in Sask., lack of action on safety concerns

The union representing nurses in Saskatchewan is raising concerns over the province's increasing reliance on contract nurses and the lack of action on safety issues.

Tracy Zambory, president of the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses (SUN), said the province is on track to spend $70 million on contract nurses by the end of this fiscal year.

She said the province would be better off committing the funds to improving the working conditions of nurses who live in the province rather than spending it on short-term — and often expensive — contracts.

"The opportunity is there and certainly the money is there, because they're spending it now," Zambory said on Thursday.

In the legislature this week, provincial Health Minister Everett Hindley did not deny the alleged increase of spending on contract nurses, sometimes called agency nurses or travel nurses, when presented with it by the Official Opposition.

He defended their use when asked about it by reporters.

"Here in Saskatchewan, as with other provinces and territories, there is a utilization of contract nurses when necessary in order to either keep facilities open or to fill shifts," Hindley said.

Saskatchewan's Minster of Health, Everett Hindley, says the province is attempting to reduce its use of contract nurses. (CBC news)

The health minister described the contracts as a temporary solution to staffing issues.

Zambory said the evidence indicates otherwise.

"That's not how it's turning out at all. I mean, we've been talking for quite some time about the overuse of agency nurses and the amount of money that we keep spending on them keeps growing and growing," she said.

"Whilst the the government might be talking about this being a short-term solution, they're doing nothing to change that."

The NDP provided a summary of SHA annual reports, which showed the province has spent an increasing amount on contract nurses:

• 2020/2021 – $1.4 million.

• 2021/2022 – $9.9 million.

• 2022/2023 – $25.3 million.

Hindley said the province is working to reduce its reliance on contract nurses but Zambory said that hasn't actually happened, even though the union has repeatedly alerted the government to its concerns.

And Zambory said the government has declined to establish a nursing task force that would work to retain mid- to late-career nurses.

Nurses and health care staff rallied in Saskatoon in November to call for more staffing. (Kendall Latimer, CBC News)

The province has also failed to offer incentives for nurses like other provinces do, which would bolster recruitment, Zambory said.

"We are at the worst nursing shortage that we've had in this province in a decade," she said.

Many of the union's members are fed up with staffing shortages and the deteriorating working conditions, Zambory said.

That includes unaddressed safety concerns.

In Regina, a woman was robbed at knife point while at the Pasqua Hospital during the weekend.

The Regina Police Service have said hospital security guards quickly apprehended the 34-year-old suspect, and the woman was not hurt.

Zambory said news of a violent incident wasn't surprising to her or to other nurses.

"I spoke with the members [at the Pasqua Hospital]. This is what they deal with on a daily basis. It just somehow managed to get into the news," she said.

SUN has repeatedly argued that more needs to be done to address the issue of violence at health-care facilities and Zambory said the incidents of violence in emergency rooms are on a "skyrocketing trajectory."

On Wednesday, Hindley said incidents requiring security are becoming more common in hospitals as there are more mental health and addictions patients needing help.

Zambory painted a similar picture — but highlighted that the province's decisions have not helped in that regard.

SUN has previously argued for the province to reverse a policy decision that changed the province's approach to harm reduction and on Thursday Zambory echoed that call once again.

"We just keep going further and further downhill and there's been no solutions brought forward that have any sort of meat on the bones, that have changed anything for the worker on the front line or for the patient that's having to enter the system," she said.

All of this comes as the province has teased a number of items set to be released in the provincial budget next week.

Zambory said nurses will be watching to see if the province attempts to address the issues SUN has raised.