MONEY TO HEALTH CHIEFS SPEND £2MILLION ON AGENCY STAFF
How much is too much? That is the question after the amount of money spent by health bosses in a year on agency staff was revealed. Andrea O’Neill reports on the figures and gets the reaction to them...
University Hospital Hairmyres spent more than £2 million on agency staff in a year, new figures have revealed.
The £2.228m spent on agency staff outside the NHS would have paid for 67 new nurses on an average charge nurse salary of £32,873.
In 2016-17, NHS Lanarkshire splashed out more than £10m on agency staff for its three acute university hospitals – Hairmyres, Wishaw and Monklands.
The figure, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, would have paid for the equivalent of 323 nurses.
The Royal College of Nursing Scotland (RCN) told the News health boards cannot continue to “ratchet up” spending on agency nurses.
Central Scotland Labour list MSP Monica Lennon slammed the figures this week and called the health board’s agency spending costs “a scandal” but East Kilbride SNP MSP Linda Fabiani insists the agency spend is less than one per cent of NHS Lanarkshire’s total nursing workforce.
The highest agency staff spend last year was at Monklands – £3.390m – while £3.116m was spent at Wishaw. Ms Lennon said: “The soaring costs of agency spending on nursing jobs at Hairmyres, Wishaw and Monklands is a scandal, and reveals the utter
mess that the SNP
Government in Edinburgh have made of NHS workforce planning.
“Nicola Sturgeon, as health secretary, forced through cuts to training places for nurses and midwives several years ago and we’re now seeing the effects of that with astronomical sums being spent on private agencies to make up the shortfall.
“The health service is our most valuable public service and public money should be re-invested in the NHS, not spent on boosting the profits of private companies.
“Richard Leonard has pledged that the next Scottish Labour government will legislate to cap the profits of private agencies in the health service.
“If the SNP wants to start fixing this workforce crisis it should work with Labour to deliver this cap in the safe staffing bill.”
Tory Central Scotland list MSP Graham Simpson believes the money could be better spent.
He said: “The money being spent on agency staff at the University Hospital Hairmyres is quite alarming.
“Whilst agency staff have a role to play, it appears to be a very expensive one. If you break it down, the £2.2m could be put to better use employing more fulltime dedicated nursing staff.
“What is needed is real investment and retention of frontline medical professionals who do a fantastic job for the local community in which they serve.”
But Ms Fabiani defended the cost of agency staff within the health board – insisting agency spending accounts for less than one per cent of NHS Lanarkshire’s nursing workforce.
She said: “Since the SNP came to power, the number of nursing and midwifery posts in NHS Lanarkshire has increased by 9.7 per cent, whilst the NHS budget has increased by almost 27 per cent.
“The Scottish Government recently ensured an additional £400m for our NHS in the last budget – more than the other parties were willing to commit.