Holt government wants exit from travel nurse contract

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Premier Susan Holt wants to see the end of a controversial travel nurse contract between Vitalité Health Network and Ontario-based Canadian Health Labs.

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The contract, which is capped at $93 million, was inked back in December 2022 while the former Blaine Higgs Progressive Conservative government was in power.

It’s set to run through at least February 2026, but it can be automatically renewed up to five times if Canadian Health Labs (CHL) continues to meet linguistic targets spelled out in the deal.

“We’re looking for ways that we can get out of that contract, but that’s a legal battle,” Holt said during a year-end interview with Brunswick News.

In November, Vitalité Health Network revealed its involvement in an alternative dispute resolution process with CHL after facing months of scrutiny from the province’s auditor general, politicians and the nurses’ union over its use of travel health-care workers.

Brunswick News asked Vitalité Health Network about the status of that alternative dispute resolution process and whether the regional health authority is seeking to end or modify the current CHL contract.

“While discussions are ongoing with CHL and the government, no final decisions have been made regarding changes to our agreement with CHL,” Vitalité said in an unsigned statement.

“We remain focused on our mission to deliver high-quality healthcare while responsibly managing public resources.”

Vitalité is currently locked in a separate legal battle over its refusal to hand over internal travel nurse audit reports to the Office of the Auditor General.

Those internal audit reports pertain to a CHL contract, auditor general Paul Martin noted in his June report to the legislative assembly on the province’s use of travel health-care workers.

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In 2022, amid a COVID-19 pandemic wave, Vitalité inked six contracts with four private agencies who provided health-care workers to its short-staffed facilities. Three of those contracts were with CHL.

Holt cited the ongoing CHL contract as one of the “unfortunate” items her team inherited from the former Higgs government when the Liberals took power this past fall.

“The speed at which that contract was signed suggests that folks were moving too quickly and not doing their due diligence, and that’s cost us,” she said.

Under that contract with Vitalité, CHL bills $306 an hour for a registered nurse. In some cases, that’s more than double what other travel nurse agencies charge the regional health authority for registered nurses.

Last year, then Premier Blaine Higgs slammed Vitalité for signing a “very poor contract” with CHL after the deal came to light as part of a Globe and Mail investigation into the use of travel nurses across Canada during the pandemic.

But Dr. France Desrosiers, president and CEO of Vitalité Health Network, told MLAs that she’d been given approval to sign the contracts by Deputy Health Minister Eric Beaulieu under mounting political pressure to fix the health-care system.

At the time the contracts were signed, Vitalité had already closed 100 beds and was considering the closure of some hospital emergency rooms due to staffing shortages, Desrosiers told a legislative committee last June.

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Given that CHL had a virtual “monopoly” on being able to provide bilingual nurses quickly, Desrosiers said Vitalité had no choice but to sign on with the company, which was already working with the Department of Social Development.

Desrosiers detailed Vitalité’s version of events surrounding the travel nurse contracts to a legislative committee following the release of Martin’s audit.

Higgs subsequently accused Desrosiers of blaming “non-partisan public servants for poor management decisions that she made,” stating that neither the government nor civil servants gave her direction to sign long-term travel nurse contracts. He called on Vitalité’s board of directors to get out of the deal with CHL.

At that time, Desrosiers said the automatic renewal clause in the CHL contract was part of an ongoing “legal dispute” between the travel nurse agency and the regional health authority. However, she indicated that Vitalité’s lawyers believe the clause is at the health network’s discretion, not the company’s discretion.

Premier believes a better deal possible

Vitalité officials have maintained that travel nurses are still necessary to this day within their health network to maintain service levels.

Holt told Brunswick News she doesn’t dispute that.

“We don’t have enough resources to backfill all the travel nurse positions with permanent New Brunswick nurses,” she said. “We would have to lean on the other travel nursing providers to make up the shortfall in the interim.”

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Holt believes a better deal for taxpayers can be found through another travel nurse agency. When asked if Vitalité has shopped around for a new contractor, Holt said, “I think they’ve prepared their partners to say, ‘We’re trying to get out of here and we would need you to help us backfill this much if we can get out of those contracts.’”

Brunswick News asked Vitalité if it has priced out what other travel nursing agencies would charge to supply the same level of staffing provided through the CHL contract. It did not receive a response to the question.

The regional health authority has used a variety of travel nurse agencies.

In 2022, in addition to CHL, Vitalité also inked deals with three other travel health-care worker agencies: Magnus, SPI and Goodwill. More than $123 million was spent by Vitalité on travel health-care workers between February 2022 and February 2024, with $98 million of that tied to the three CHL contracts.

By comparison, Horizon Health Network spent more than $47 million over that same timeframe, according to the auditor general’s report. Horizon entered into agreements with seven different companies, but it didn’t turn to CHL for assistance.

Last August, Horizon eliminated its use of travel nurses thanks to the success of ongoing recruitment efforts. A total of 542 nurses were recruited from June to September, resulting in a net gain of 261 nurses for the health network, according to its last quarterly update provided in November.

– With files from Andrew Waugh

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