Royal Inland Hospital (Photo: Abby Zieverink)
Interior Health says its reliance on agency staff has increased over the past two years as the health authority deals with staffing challenges.
Roughly 260 agency staff have been scheduled to work at Royal Inland Hospital in January 2023. It breaks down to include 78 care aides, 60 LPNs, one lab tech, and 136 RNs.
IH CEO Susan Brown says this reliance on agency staff goes beyond the health authority’s boundaries.
“Across the province, we are using agency staff extensively; and we would like to get more of our own staff.”
While Brown says around the end of last year, RIH did start to see some staffing relief however, she says some roadblocks come with agency staff.
“When you have a workforce that is reliant on maybe some agency staff support or casual staff, they can pick and choose when they would like to work, so it is harder for us to forecast the staffing. So staffing got a little bit harder again over the holiday period and that creates challenges.”
The health authority says about 3.9 per cent of staff members scheduled to work across the Interior for the 2023 fiscal year are agency staff.
In a statement to NL News, IH North Vice President Diane Shendruk says over the past two years, IH has been experiencing staffing challenges, similar across all sectors — which is why the reliance on agency staff has increased.
“The increase in agency staffing is the result of a higher number of overall vacancies, planned and unplanned leaves, and increased sick calls due to COVID-19 – particularly during the Omicron wave.”
In the fiscal year of 2022/2023, $5,046,541 was spent on agency staff compared to $7,446,747 in the 2021/22 fiscal year — which goes from April to July.
Shendruk says this is the total cost including reimbursable travel expenses, accommodation expenses, premiums, and vacation pay.
“Since 2021, the average hourly rate of pay for nurses contracted through private agencies is approximately $70.45 per hour with some minor circumstantial variation across the province. This rate of pay includes vacation pay; statutory holiday pay; any applicable on-call, call-back, and overtime pay as well as benefits,” she said.
“This should not be compared to the base rate of an IH nurse, which does not include overtime, shift premiums, vacation pay, and benefits.”
For context, Shendruk says the amount IH has spent on agency staffing is still a “tiny” fraction of what they have spent on in-house nursing staff.
“More than 97 per cent of nursing expenditures in Interior Health for the current fiscal year are on IH staff, with less than three per cent going to agency staff.”
Shendruk says their objective is to minimize agency staffing as soon as possible, noting IH will hire staff where they are needed as soon as they become available.
