Anger after nurse paid £1,273 to cover shift
government ought to be doing more to help the board hire permanent staff.
Ms smith commented:“these are quite extraordinary sums and further underline the recruitment problems currently ongoing at NHs tayside.
“Paying large sums for agency staff doesn’t represent good value for money and officials at the health board need more support from the scottish government in recruiting permanent staff.
“ultimately, when budgets are tight and services are being rationalised, paying through the nose for agency staff demonstrates how poorly the scottish government has got it when it comes to workforce planning.”
Murdo Fraser MsP (below) added: “Agency staff are really important in NHs tayside as they are flexible and can fill short-term staffing gaps, as well as reducing waiting lists.
“However, mismanagement of the NHs has clearly led to a long term reliance on agency staff which is coming at a huge cost in NHs tayside.” Norman Provan, associate director of employment relations at the royal College of Nursing scotland, said:“While some investment in agency nursing will always be needed to cover unexpected events like sickness absence to ensure safe patient care, health boards cannot continue to ratchet up spending on agency nurses.
“It is not sustainable and the lack of continuity for nursing teams can impact on the quality of care that patients receive and on staff morale.
“the bottom line is that scotland does not have the nursing staff it requires to deliver care to all who need it. What’s needed is a structured approach to workforce planning which ensures that scotland has the right number of registered nurses and nursing support staff with the right knowledge, skills and experience in the right place at the right time.”
An NHs tayside spokesperson commented:“NHs tayside has proactive approaches to reducing reliance on use of supplementary staffing and actions continue to be taken to manage the appropriate use of temporary agency staff and reduce overall costs.
“In every circumstance the use of external agency or temporary staffing is the final option. All our decisions on staffing requirements are led by professional clinicians who are committed to ensuring the ongoing provision of safe and effective care for our patients.
“In this instance, the cost indicates a specialty staff resource who most likely worked a public holiday or night shift to meet a specific patient need.
“We have opened up the opportunity for all registered nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers to join the NHs tayside nurse bank to increase capacity and reduce our use of agency staff.”