Vitalité CEO says top health official gave 'green light' to travel-nurse contracts
CBC
The CEO of the Vitalité health authority says costly travel nurse contracts were the result of pressure from the Higgs government to fix the health-care system quickly — and a refusal by that same government to approve other, less expensive options.
Dr. France Desrosiers told a committee of MLAs Thursday morning the health network was given a "mandate" in the summer of July 2022 to rapidly improve health care following the death of a patient in a Fredericton hospital emergency department.
"We were mandated to fix the situation quickly," she said. "The pressure was high. It was one minute to midnight."
Vitalité was in the midst of a staffing crisis at the time that left the authority on the verge of closing hospital emergency departments in two regional hospitals, the CEO said.
Dozens of other departments were unable to function, she added. Dialysis patients who normally required four hours of treatment were getting three hours.
Desrosiers said she met at the time with the new deputy minister in the health department, Eric Beaulieu, who promised to provide funding if travel-nurse costs put Vitalité into a deficit.
She said she would not have signed the contracts otherwise.
"He used those words, 'I'm giving you the green light to go ahead,'" Desrosiers told MLAs on the legislature's public accounts committee.
"'It's understood that this will cost tens of millions of dollars?'' she recalled saying in the meeting.
"'Yes, it's understood,'" she quoted Beaulieu responding.
Earlier this week Beaulieu, in his own appearance at the committee, backed up Health Minister Bruce Fitch's claim that the cost implications of the contracts only became clear to the department in early 2023.
In a written statement, Fitch said Desrosier's comments "appear to be designed to deflect from the organization taking responsibility for their actions."
He pointed out that Vitalité paid "significantly more" for travel nurses than Horizon Health — something Desrosiers has explained stems from its greater need for bilingual personnel.
Fitch also claimed that some MLAs "chose to use today to attack hard-working public servants," though he didn't elaborate.
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