As B.C.’s hospitals are faltering under the burden of staff resignations and illness, sources say private companies are quietly filling the gaps with growing numbers of well-compensated nurses – with an unclear price tag.
The BC Nurses’ Union has confirmed their members are reporting what frontline staff have been telling CTV News for months: so-called “travelling nurses” employed by private agencies are increasingly contracted by health authorities to staff hospitals plagued by departmental closures and long wait times.
Neither the province’s health authorities nor the Ministry of Health publicizes the costs or contracts for those agencies, meaning very few people have any idea how much it’s costing to employ nurses walking away from unionized staff jobs for increased pay, better working conditions and sometimes even thousands in retention bonuses.
