Nursing staff costing care homes up to £800 a shif t

CaRe homes are being forced to pay up to £800 a night for agency nurses, it emerged yesterday.

private agencies were accused of ‘profiteering’ after it was disclosed that they are charging £84,000 a year and up to £800 a shift for a nurse.

The figures emerged at a meeting of the Scottish parliament’s health committee.

Scottish Care, which represents nursing homes and other care providers, claims more than a quarter of nursing posts are vacant, leaving homes to rely on agency staff.

Chief executive Dr Donald Macaskill told MSps ‘agency costs on average are about £345 for a night shift but that can go up to £800’.

he said: ‘our members employ about 10 per cent of the nurses in Scotland. We are facing a critical situation. They are covering it by using agency staff.’

Dr Macaskill added: ‘Needless to say, the individual nurses are not going home with £800 at the end of their shift. The exponential increase in agencies has deeply impacted on social care providers in the last 18 months to two years and is getting worse.

‘in some sense, agencies are a manifestation of the problem and that is that we do not have enough nurses, and certainly we don’t have enough nurses who are willing and prepared to work in social care. There are lots of reasons for that.’

Committee convener Neil Findlay asked him whether or not private nursing agencies which supply temporary staff were ‘profiteering’ from the staff shortages.

Dr Macaskill replied: ‘They are in existence to create a business and they have seen an opportunity and they have been exercising that opportunity.

‘But it is having a profound effect on the viability and sustainability of care home providers in particular, whether those care homes are private or charities.’

Dr Macaskill told MSps: ‘Three years ago we had a vacancy level of about 12 per cent; last year 18 per cent; and research which we will publish on November 18 will show that that vacancy level is now 28 per cent.’

he said part of the reason for the shortage of nursing staff was that ‘three, five years ago we didn’t train enough’.

The committee did not have figures on the profit nursing agencies make from hiring out staff but previous investigations have found agencies charge between 11 per cent and 49 per cent of a nurse’s hourly rate in fees.

Speaking about the shortage of NhS staff, Mr Findlay, labour MSp for lothian, said: ‘For some people, this is a very positive thing.’ he added: ‘it looks as though if you are a shareholder in a nursing agency at the moment, you are living it up large because of this.’

he said that an audit Scotland report last week on the finances of the NhS showed agencies nurses cost £84,000 a year compared to a salaried nurse on £36,000.

Mr Findlay said: ‘how much of that is clear profit for the agency?

‘The report suggests agency cover is being used for long-term rather than just short-term cover and increasing for nursing staff and locums.

‘These are big figures that appear to be continually going in that direction. how much of this is pure profiteering and how much of these are legitimate costs?’

Giving evidence at the meeting, Sian Kiely, knowledge and research manager of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, said: ‘The volume of cost and the increasing cost of agency and locum workers is a matter of concern. We have seen a very dramatic increase of nearly 47 per cent in the cost of nursing the last year and there is work being taken forward.

‘if there is a demand for those nursing roles, there should be the focus on looking at employed roles rather than continuing to use agency cover.’

‘Profound effect on viability’