Manitoba cuts ties with dozens of private nursing agencies to curb reliance on the firms

A nurse is warning rural hospitals may feature an even out tougher clip fill shifts in the young year as the Manitoba government ends its relationship with dozens of companies supplying its health-care system with agency nurses.

Manitoba will only work with four private agencies to fill vacant shifts at public health-care facilities starting Jan. 15. That's a sharp decline from the nearly 80 companies the health-care system currently contracts, health minister Uzoma Asagwara said in a recent interview.

Four companies — Elite Intellicare Staffing, Integra Health, Bayshore HealthCare, Augury Healthcare — won the right to work in Manitoba through a competitive bidding process, Shared Health, which co-ordinates health-care delivery in the province, confirmed.

The province is counting on the nurses already working for the dozens of private agencies to either take jobs with the four chosen agencies or preferably the public system, the minister said, but one agency nurse doesn't share the same optimism.

Melisa Dupont said she's heard from agency nurses, like herself, who are planning to leave Manitoba because of the changes.

"Even with the 70 agencies we did have, we couldn't fill all the needs, hence why I'm working 16-hour shifts," Dupont said.

"So how do they think cutting it down to four [agencies] is going to make it better?"

Asagwara said Manitoba has fostered a "cottage industry" with dozens of private, for-profit agencies springing up in recent years, squeezing the public system for millions of dollars in higher wages, travel fees and per diems.

The minister said dramatically scaling back the number of agencies, along with new policies to govern their operation and control costs, would give the province more control.

"We've heard stories of [private] nurses with not-the-right skills showing up at a site, unable to actually provide care because they weren't matched appropriately," Asagwara said.

"This approach is making sure that we've got vetted agencies whose approach and values are aligned with the standards of care that we should expect from Manitobans."

Dupont said the province has a number of reputable, homegrown agencies, including Happy Nursing Agency, which she works for, and now most of the chosen agencies are from out-of-province — and are "hounding" nurses to recruit them.

The calls are coming day and night. "My one girlfriend was like, 'I have to tell them to leave me alone,'" she said.

Asagwara has made no secret of their desire for private agency nurses to move to the public system, and they say the new plan is already having the desired effect.

Around 200 people have applied to be travelling nurses in the public system's float pool — the government's answer to private nursing agencies — in recent weeks, accompanying the roughly 500 already in the float pool and the 80 being onboarded, Asagwara said in December. The government also says it has hired 1,200 net new nurses in the past two years.

"Nurses want to work in the public system — they just want a competitive package," Asagwara said, describing the float pool as an appealing part of that offer.

Asagwara added Prairie Mountain Health, which was directed to cut private nurse spending by 15 per cent by March 2026, has so far slashed costs by 14 per cent.

Dupont, however, said wages in the public system aren't high enough to entice her back and she doesn't want to move to one of the four agencies because it would mean leaving a company she likes and losing her flexibility.

She and her partner are planning to travel the country beginning this summer by camper, picking up nursing shifts along the way. She plans to apply for casual positions beforehand.

Manitoba Nurses Union president Darlene Jackson pointed out many of the nurses moving to the public system's float pool are coming from private agencies.

She's encouraged by the reduction in private agencies, given the province's spending on private nursing agencies has been rising year-over-year, soaring from $26.9 million in 2020-21 to $80 million in 2024-25, according to Shared Health.

"If we're going to spend the money, I would rather see it go into our public health-care system rather than into lining the pockets of a private, for-profit agency," Jackson said.

Some of the other new rules impacting private agencies include requiring they employ nurses directly rather than relying on informal agreements.

"This increases accountability for training, licensure and that they have the appropriate qualifications and experience for the setting," said a Shared Health statement.

Under the new arrangement, each regional health authority has three contracted private nursing agencies.

When there's a vacancy to fill, the RHA will first approach the primary agency, then go down the list, to the secondary and tertiary agencies, until the shift is filled.

All three agencies will be contacted at once for urgent or emergency shifts.

For example, Elite Intellicare Staffing — the only of the four agencies based in Manitoba — has top billing for filling vacancies in the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority and Southern Health, while its the secondary option at Interlake-Eastern and Prairie Mountain and the tertiary option at Northern Health.

A nurse will only be permitted to work for one agency at a time, and thus may be shut out from certain regions. For example, a nurse employed with Augury Healthcare will have first crack at shifts at Prairie Mountain and cannot work in Winnipeg.

Shared Health didn't answer further questions Monday about the new contracts.

Progressive Conservative health critic Kathleen Cook worries the shift to four contracted agencies will be "very chaotic."

When "there's a major shift in the way we do things in health care, particularly when it comes to staffing, there's the potential for disruption," Cook said, drawing parallels with last year's botched rollout of a centralized scheduling system for home care that led to an increase in cancelled appointments.

"And I certainly hope that the current government has a plan for that, and a contingency plan, to mitigate that. Based on the experience with home care, I'm not confident."

Provincial affairs reporter

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