A report on the use of staffing agencies shows Ontario hospitals have spent over $9.2 billion over the past decade on them to fill job vacancies.
The report commissioned by CUPE’s Ontario Council of Hospital Unions found use was greatest in northwestern Ontario, where per capita costs ballooned by $480, accounting for 17% of total front-line staffing costs.
Author Andrew Longhurst says it undermines the investments hospitals make toward their workforces.
“Private agency staff can be at least three times more expensive than regular employees, and while the number of private agency staff hours worked in public hospitals accounted for 0.4% of front-line hours, private agencies consumed 6% of
Ontario front-line labour costs,” says Longhurst
Longhurst suggests Ontario phase out and ban private staffing agencies and provide hospitals with $2 billion to stabilize their workforces.
“The use of for-profit staffing agencies is part of a vicious cycle that hollows out the public sector workforce, thereby increasing hospitals’ dependence on private agencies,” says Longhurst.
“The government must take a range of measures to resolve this crisis, but central to that is increasing hospital funding.”
