Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Monklands hospital splashes out £3.3m on agency staff in a year That would have paid for over 100 nurses The agency staff bill for NHS Lanarkshire for the 12 months was more than £10m
Airdrie MSP Alex Neil says agency nurses shouldn’t be paid more than permanent nursing staff
Graham Simpson, Central Scotland MSP, believes the money could be better spent Ian Bunting
New figures have revealed that University Hospital Monklands spent more than £3million on agency staff in a year – the highest of Lanarkshire’s three acute university hospitals.
The £3.39million splashed out on agency staff outside the NHS would have paid for over 100 new nurses on an average salary of £32, 873.
In 2016-17, NHS Lanarkshire paid more than £10m on agency staff for its three acute university hospitals – Monklands, Hairmyres and Wishaw.
That figure, obtained through a Freedom of Information request, would have paid for the equivalent of 323 nurses.
The Royal College of Nursing Scotland (RCN) have said the health boards cannot continue to “ratchet up” spending on agency nurses.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard slammed the figures and hit out at the private companies “sucking money out of the NHS”, while Coatbridge MSP Fulton MacGregor claimed agency cover is something that “must be available to those running our health service”.
Mr Leonard told the Advertiser: “It is no surprise the costs of agency staff are so high.
“The SNP government have been warned time and again that cutting training for medical personnel would result in a greater reliance on private companies in the Scottish NHS. These companies are making profits and sucking money out of the NHS that should be going to patient care and directly employed staff in the NHS.
“Scottish Labour will legislate to cap the profits these companies can make and we will get back to the days when we were training enough nurses, midwifes, doctors and other medical personnel to meet the needs of our NHS.”
Mr Leonard’s fellow Central Scotland MSP, Monica Lennon, said: “The continually soaring costs of agency spending on staff at Monklands is indicative of the mess that the SNP government have made of NHS workforce planning. “They 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. “Public money should be re-invested in the NHS by improving care and paying directly employed staff, not spent on boosting the profits of private companies. “That’s why the next Scottish Labour government will legislate to cap the profits of private agencies in the health service.” Tory Central Scotland list MSP Graham Simpson believes the money could be better spent – and called the money being shelled out on agency staff at Monklands “ridiculous”.
He said: “The NHS is a treasured institution and it is being let down by the SNP government on a daily basis.
“I would like to know why Monklands has the highest level of spending on agency staff amongst the three hospitals in Lanarkshire; the figure of £3.3m is ridiculous.
“This money is going to private companies and not being invested in the NHS like it should.
“It would be far better spent on training and creating more permanent nursing jobs to serve the local Lanarkshire community, which University Hospital Monklands is clearly screaming out for.”
But Mr MacGregor defended the cost of agency staff within the health board, saying: “Of course