Vitalité ‘stands behind’ its CEO after auditor general report on travel nurses contracts

Vitalité Health Network’s board of directors says it “stands behind” its CEO a week after New Brunswick’s auditor general’s report found contracts signed to bring travel nurses to the province to be “shocking” and “risky.”

An audit found some contracts either had an auto-renewal clause, weren’t signed by both parties, or signed by the wrong person altogether.

Paul Martin said many contracts were “not reflective of best practices and did not demonstrate value for money.”

Horizon and Vitalité Health Networks, and the Department of Social Development spent a total of $173 million on these contracts that saw nurses from private agencies travel to N.B. to work in hospitals and long-term care homes which were short-staffed.

When asked if someone should be fired in light of what was found, Health Minister Bruce Fitch and Premier Blaine Higgs said that’s up to the network board of directors.

“I’m not going to offer an opinion on it because I think that’s why we changed the protocols. So the boards, you know, who can be close to the actual operation, understand the details and then decide what their next step and it’ll be a board decision,” Higgs said Friday.

Vitalité’s board appears to have made a decision. In a statement, board chair Tom Soucy said CEO Dr. France Desrosiers has led “continuous improvement efforts with conviction.”

“The Board of Directors stands behind Dr. France Desrosiers, reiterating its support for her leadership, rigour, vision and exemplary execution of her role as president and CEO, and for the Network’s purpose, which is to foster the health of our patients and communities, today and tomorrow,” Soucy stated.

In its most recent report to the community, Vitalité says it hired 186 nurse and patient care attendant graduates and 96 international recruits between April and December 2023. In that same time frame, 117 employees in those positions left.

N.B. nurses feel retention bonuses would have helped

When some nurses started leaving the profession after working through two years of the pandemic, several provinces responded with temporary retention bonuses.

Nova Scotia still has a bonus in place – $10,000 for nurses who sign on for two more years.

Newfoundland and Labrador was one of the first to put a bonus in place with $3,000 for a registered nurse. Prince Edward Island also had one, $3,500 which was in place for one year.

New Brunswick did not buy into a retention bonus program.

“I’ve been pushed off to say we will discuss that at the negotiating table,” said Paula Doucet, N.B. Nurses Union president.

New Brunswick nurses and the provincial government are currently at the negotiating table and both sides have agreed not to speak on those discussions.

While not everyone agrees these types of retention bonuses actually work – Doucet feels they could have saved the province some of the $173 million spent on those private travel nurse contracts.

“Had this government listened and wanted to come to the table and have meaningful discussions when I first mentioned the very first retention and recruitment incentive that Newfoundland Labrador tabled two summers ago, we probably wouldn’t have spent as much money as we have on these travel nurse agency, private for profit companies,” she said.

Doucet says there are other ways to better retain nurses, and points to the Nursing Retention Toolkit released by Health Canada in March. It outlines mental health initiatives, flexible work schedules and safer environments as some of the ways to keep nurses.

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