The New Brunswick Ministry of Health is facing initial criticism during a legislative committee meeting focused on $173 million spent on travel nursing contracts.
Earlier this month, the Auditor General investigated the contract and released a scathing report that he called shocking and dangerous.
Paul Martin said some contracts have automatic renewal clauses that aren't signed by both parties or are signed by the wrong person.
His audit found that Vitalité Health Network was paying more than $300 per hour for each in-person staff member provided by a private travel nursing agency.
Deputy Minister Eric Beaulieu answered questions from members of the Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday morning about the role his department played in signing and approving those contracts.
Beaulieu said the Ministry of Health first learned of the province's use of traveling nurses in early 2022. He said the service has been in place across the country for many years, but prior to 2022 it hadn't been used “very much” in New Brunswick.
Vitalité Health has a contract with one distributor through at least 2026.
Former Health Minister Dorothy Shepherd asked whether the Department of Health had looked at whether the network could make cost savings within existing contracts.
“I know there is still a lot of money to be spent, but is the Ministry of Health currently involved in reviewing those contracts…?” she asked.
Beaulieu responded that the Ministry of Health is not a party to the contract, but said he believes that by helping health networks recruit stable staff, cost savings can be realized across the system.
Shepherd also asked whether Treasury had seen three internal audits that Vitalite conducted on some of its contracts, saying they had not been made available to the auditor general and that Vitalite was currently in negotiations with one company and disclosing details of the audits could jeopardize those negotiations.
Beaulieu said the State Department has not seen any such internal audits.
He said the Ministry of Health was aware of the need for travelling nurses during the pandemic and “was supportive of that”.
However, he said the Ministry of Health has not approved any contracts signed by the health networks.
Green Party state councillor Megan Mitten asked whether the Ministry of Health should have approved the health network if it was on the verge of going over budget.
Beaulieu acknowledged that it is common practice for health networks to consult with the Ministry of Health to discuss contracts that may result in budget overruns.
He said he was informed by Vitalite that the health network is on track to exceed its budget by about $22 million in 2022 because of its first travel nurse contract with Canadian Health Labs.
But he said he had not been approached by Horizon, which has spent $3 million on agency nurses in the 2022/23 financial year.
Beaulieu made it clear on multiple occasions that the Ministry of Health would not give the “green light” to health authorities to award the contract, but said the ministry had assured Vitalité that it understood “the need to secure additional staff”.
Specifically, he said the health network is struggling to retain staff for dialysis and emergency department services.
Beaulieu said he had a “30-second” phone call with the CEO of Canadian Health Labs.
“I simply asked, 'Is this the best price you can offer for this contract?'” he said.
He said this was his first contract with the CHL and more importantly, he was shortening the contract period.
Beaulieu said there is currently a shortage of 735 nurses out of a total budgeted number of 5,812 nurses, meaning the vacancy rate is about 12.6 per cent.
