Cost soars for agency nurses

It has emerged that in the last four years, the spend on agency nurses in the South West of England has risen from around £12m to over £59m.

The Royal College of Nursing has said that a shortage of nursing staff is “crippling” the NHS. There are fewer nurses now than in 2010, and the NHS have had to search for ways of addressing the shortfall, leading to recruiting nurses from abroad and paying high rates for temporary agency staff.

Jeanett Martin, regional director of the RCN, said “An already overstretched workforce is trying to carry out even more work in even less time, so NHS trusts are trying to plug the gap to ensure patients get the care they need, and it is costing the NHS a huge amount of money.

“It takes three years to train a nurse so we need action now to ensure that the UK has the nurses required to provide patients with the care that they need.”

In its last board report, The Royal Devon and Exeter Hospitals Trust said that this year it was having to overspend £3.8m on staff pay, which was in part due to recruiting agency staff to cover vacancies.

Tracey Reeves, deputy chief nurse, said “Our priority is providing safe, high quality care for our patients, and we are working hard to ensure that safe staffing levels are maintained.

“A sustained increase in patient demand year on year has increased the need for nursing staff and we have invested over £3.5m over the last two years to increase our nursing establishment.”

The Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust placed the blame on a high level of patients and “recruitment challenges being experienced across the NHS.”

Chadwick Lawrence’s specialist team of clinical negligence lawyers have years of experience in Medical negligence compensation claims, and have obtained substantial compensation for our clients. Not only do we represent clients in Yorkshire, but because of our reputation we also represent clients nationally.

If you believe that you or a relative may have been injured as a result of clinical/Medical negligence, please call for free legal advice from our Medical negligence solicitors on the freephone number below.

Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), Medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Freephone : 0800 028 2969