CUPE says Sask. gov't spent at least $730K on private health care staffing in Prairie North region

Saskatchewan's branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) said the province has spent at least $730,000 on private health care staffing in the Prairie North region, which includes North Battleford and Meadow Lake. 

CUPE said it got the information after filing a transparency grievance with the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA).

The money was spent specifically on licensed practical nurses. The contract workers in the Prairie North region are provided by health care staffing solution company Gratitude Health.

In an emailed statement to CBC News, the Government of Saskatchewan said the SHA has 225 contracted health care staff deployed across the province.

Bashir Jalloh, President of CUPE 5430, said this is not the right approach to dealing with Saskatchewan's health care staffing crisis. He called it a "temporary Band-Aid solution."

"I think they had a choice. This is a pattern, and this is the goal in my opinion … they are trying to privatize as much as they can," Jalloh said.

"The problem here is privatization costs more money. It's costing the health-care system a lot more money. And you are taking the trained professionals from the public system. You are draining the public system into these private facilities, and those for-profit facilities do not take on complex cases."

Jalloh said that the hiring of out-of-province, private staff is worsening morale among SHA nurses, who are being paid less than private contract workers doing the same job.

He said the top of the Continuing Care Assistant (CCA) wage scale is $24.84 an hour in Saskatchewan. Meanwhile, a job posting for a travel CCA posted by Gratitude Canada offers a wage scale of $28-$32 per hour, plus travel, accommodations and a meal allowance.

Jalloh said he's heard from Saskatchewan nurses who say they may become private contract workers so that they can make more money. This would cost the Saskatchewan health-care system greatly, he said.

He said using workers from private companies is very common now.

"We thought that this was an isolated situation, but it started way back sometime last year in the summer. We saw that there were some contract workers in the Estevan area, and contract nurses in the Canora area and Kamsack area and the Yorkton area."

But CUPE only just found out about the extent of the use of contract workers.

Everett Hindley, Saskatchewan's minister of rural and remote health, said multiple provinces with health-care shortages are using private "travelling" nurses. He conceded the system is not ideal.