Western Manitoba health authority ordered to cut private nurse spending by 15%
Prairie Mountain Health must make cut by March 2026, health minister says
A western Manitoba health authority has been ordered by the province to slash its spending on private nurses before early next year.
The province told Prairie Mountain Health it must cut its private nursing costs by 15 per cent by March 2026, Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a Wednesday news release.
The order is part of the province's mission to invest in the health-care system and encourage more nurses to join the private system, Asagwara said in the release.
Premier Wab Kinew said Prairie Mountain has seen "extensive use" of agency nurses, which has created both financial and staffing challenges for the health authority.
He said the directive is to reduce reliance on nursing agencies, after an "exodus of nurses" from the public sector to the agencies.
The directive is "the best way for us to staff up in the long term," Kinew said at an unrelated news conference on Wednesday.
"The bottom line is that we need to set a target, otherwise this is never going to happen."
In an emailed statement, Prairie Mountain Health CEO Treena Slate said the agency applauds the province's move and has been working with the government to "ensure there will be no gaps in care as we transition from a heavy reliance on agencies to employing enough staff to meet our needs."
Announcement 'a distraction': health critic
Kathleen Cook, the Progressive Conservative health critic, said the announcement is "nothing more than a distraction" from what she described as the NDP government's failure to address Manitoba's health-care crisis.
Freedom of Information documents show that Prairie Mountain's agency nurse hours have "skyrocketed," Cook said in a statement Wednesday. Her statement included an attachment that showed the results of that request, showing Prairie Mountain spent nearly $21 million on agency nurses from January to October 2024 — about $5 million more than all of 2022.
Kyle Ross, president of the Manitoba Government and General Employees' Union, also criticized the province's directive, saying it doesn't go far enough.
"We would like to see them focus on removing agency [use] from all [health-care] professions, not just nurses," he said.
Last year, Manitoba banned public health providers from signing new contracts with private nursing agencies, issuing a request for proposals that would allow approved agencies to continue operating in the province.
That request has now closed, the province says, and proposals will be reviewed and evaluated beginning this week.
Premier Wab Kinew first announced the RFP in May, saying the province wanted more oversight over private nursing agencies.
Manitoba's public health providers currently have hundreds of contracts with over 70 private nursing agencies, Asagwara said in Wednesday's news release.