Public hearing called over agency nursing scandal

The province’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts has scheduled an Aug. 12 public hearing in response to Auditor General Denise Hanrahan’s recent findings that Newfoundland and Labrador’s health authority failed to follow proper procedures when hiring agency nurses, raising “strong indications of potential billing fraud.” 

Registered Nurses’ Union President Yvette Coffey welcomes the hearing but is concerned the upcoming provincial election could delay it. “The worry is that the election call would interfere, because once an election is called […] all the MHAs are then in election mode.” 

The provincial election is scheduled to take place on Oct. 14. The Liberal government, under John Hogan, could call the election earlier, however. An early election could potentially allow some elected officials involved in the scandal to be re-elected before facing greater public scrutiny and accountability.

According to the House of Assembly’s Guide to Standing & Select Committees, dissolution of the legislature for a general election “extinguishes all Committees and all outstanding Committee business.” The guidelines also say the House of Assembly “may revive Committee business from a previous General Assembly by resolution in a new General Assembly,” but that the new committee “is not bound by the work of the previous Committee.”

In an email to The Independent, PC leader Tony Wakeham said PC MHAs Pleaman Forsey and Joedy Wall, who are members of the Public Accounts Committee, will pursue a thorough investigation. “They will ask the tough questions needed to hold those responsible to account [and] seek to determine why out-of-province travel nurses were favoured over local nurses, why potential fraudulent billings occurred, and why taxpayers paid for things like air fryers, out-of-province hotel rooms, and electric vehicle rentals.”

Last month, Hanrahan released a report highlighting multiple concerns over the hiring process for agency nurses, including a lack of proper financial oversight and inadequate verification of credentials. The report also noted minimal evidence of credibility checks during negotiations with staffing agencies.

Between 2022 and 2024, the provincial government spent around $241 million on services from 11 different staffing agencies. The AG’s report notes the cost of an average agency nurse was over $400,000 per year—more than four times the salary of a public nurse in the province, which averages around $100,000 annually.

Since the report’s release, Coffey says many public nurses—some of whom mentored agency nurses and helped them integrate into the provincial health system—have been “very angry, and rightly so, very disappointed, [and] very demoralized.”

Premier John Hogan addressed media on July 4, more than a week after the report’s release and following public calls from Coffey for him to respond to Hanrahan’s findings and directly address the scandal.

“It’s unacceptable for any entity in this province, the government included, to be paying things that aren’t in line with what is needed to be paid out,” Hogan said, adding that anyone who “did something in error or any problem or didn’t follow policy or procedure.”

Transparency and accountability

Coffey says she hopes the inquiry will also look into the findings that staff at NL Health Services were buying houses and renting them to international nurses — something she feels the Auditor General’s report didn’t explore fully.

In March 2024, Coffey said NLHS staff were renting houses to international nurses, which was a conflict of interest and violated the Conflict of Interest Act.

An internal review by NL Health Services identified 57 lease agreements where NLHS employees served as landlords, with the health authority as the official tenant. These accommodations were then provided to internationally-trained or agency nurses. 

In a November 2024 news release, Debbie Molloy, vice-president responsible for human resources with NL Health Services, said an interview review of the matter “did not reveal any intentional wrongdoing on the part of managers,” and that employees’ “offers to help with accommodations were well intended during a critical time in health care.” NL Health Services decided not to take any action against staff who had been identified as having breached the Conflict of Interest Act.

Coffey says the internal review process isn’t enough. “Basically, they investigated themselves,” she says, emphasizing the need for transparency. Coffey says those found to have failed to follow proper protocols in either the NLHS review or the Auditor General’s report need to be held accountable. “We need transparency to know what actually happened [and] where was the breakdown in controls that allowed this to happen so that this never happens again.”

Continued calls for an investigation

Wakeham says Hanrahan’s findings warrant more than committee hearings, and that he will continue to call for a full judicial inquiry into the travel nurse contracts in an effort to “expose who approved them and how this situation was allowed to unfold.”

He says a judicial inquiry would build on the work already completed, incorporating findings and transcripts from the auditor general’s report and the public accounts committee hearings. A judicial inquiry would also allow for any additional investigations necessary to ensure those responsible are held accountable. “A judicial inquiry has the power to subpoena witnesses and documents and the weight to focus on making real recommendations to prevent future scandals.”