Trust spends £1m on temps
£600k more spent on ‘expensive’ agency staff than full-time nurses
THE trust running Hillingdon’s hospitals has spent £600,000 more on agency staff in three months than it would have cost to employ full-time staff.
A report published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) reveals the Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spent £1,121,864 on “expensive” agency nurses in the second quarter of the 2014/15 financial year.
Staff nurses would have cost £512,931 for the same number of hours work – a difference of £608,933.
RCN’s London regional director, Bernell Bussue, said: “London is facing a growing shortage of qualified nursing staff and these figures show the cost which employers are having to bear to plug the gaps.
“The government needs to do much more to make London an attractive, affordable destination for nursing staff so that our hospital trusts can plan ahead and get enough permanent staff in place to provide high quality care at the level which patients expect.”
It comes after the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a report earlier this month, highlighting a shortage of nurses at the trust’s hospitals – Hillingdon and Mount Vernon.
Because of this and other concerns, the CQC rated the trust as ‘requires improvement’ and issued it with two warning notices.
RCN’s report found the trust spent more than 20 times more hiring agency nurses between July and September 2014 as it did during the same period two years earlier.
The figures, obtained through the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act, show that in the same quarter of Standards Organisation. We adhere to the Editors’ Code Of Practice as enforced by IPSO who are contactable for advice at IPSO Halton House, 20/23 High Holborn, EC1N 2JD. Website http://www. ipso.co.uk/ Telephone: 0300 123 2220 email advice@ipso. 2012/13 the trust spent only £51,771 on agency nurses, meaning a 2,067% increase.
Across England, NHS trusts spent an average of £884,179 on agency nurses in the second quarter of 2014/15, according to RCN’s Frontline First report.
This figure was just over twice that of the same period two years earlier, making Hillingdon’s increase over this period almost exactly 10 times the national average.
The report collated data from 168 of England’s 231 trusts – those that responded to the author’s FoI requests.
The Hillingdon trust pays nurses an annual salary of co.uk. If you have a complaint concerning a potential breach of the Code of Practice, we will deal with your complaint directly or IPSO can refer your complaint to us. Please go to http://www.trinitymirror.com/ howtocomplain where you between £21,478 and £27,901, plus a 15% supplement, for 37.5 hours work per week, 48 weeks a year, accounting for at least 27 days holiday.
This equates to around £16 an hour.
By comparison, the trust pays between £30 and £39 per hour for agency nurses.
In a statement, the trust state: “There is a national shortage of nursing staff, an issue which is particularly acute within London. In order to minimise the impact on patient care, we have taken on agency staff while we increase our recruitment drive for full-time nurses.” can view our Complaints Policy and Procedure. A “How To Complain” pack is also available by writing to the Legal and Compliance Department, Trinity Mirror PLC, One Canada Square, Canary Wharf, London E14 5AP.