Ban on expensive nursing agencies in bid to curb spending
Posted 16 August 2023 - 07:00
Use of expensive nursing agencies is being banned in Northern Ireland’s health and social care trusts to rein in agency spending
Drafting in help from expensive nursing agencies will no longer be allowed under new rules in Northern Ireland that aim to rein in agency spending.
Health and social care trusts in the country can now only bring in staff from agencies on the Northern Ireland Department of Health’s (DoH) nursing and healthcare support worker framework.
The framework was phased in from May this year and has been rolled out fully this week. Since its launch it has seen a reduction in the use of expensive agencies from 72% in May to 1.5% in July.
Latest figures show that in the four years to 2021-22 spending on agency nursing staff increased from £27 million to £101 million, accounting for 72% of all agency spend.
Hourly cost of a band 5 agency nurse is double that of a health and social care employed nurse
On average, the hourly cost of a band 5 agency nurse is double the hourly cost of a health and social care employed nurse, according to government data.
DoH permanent secretary Peter May said: ‘Reducing the reliance on agency workers is the right thing to do. Building up our own workforce is the best way to ensure safe and effective care and is vital in order to rebuild our health and social care services across Northern Ireland.’
RCN Northern Ireland associate director Dolores McCormick welcomed the news but said the college will be monitoring the effect it has on safe staffing and patient safety.
‘We hope these measures will help to improve the situation in relation to expenditure on agency staff, but as we have said before, more must be done to retain staff within the health service and ensure it becomes a better employer,’ she said.
Nurses in Northern Ireland remain the only nurses in the UK without a revised pay deal
‘In particular, the pay situation in Northern Ireland, and the fact that we are now the lowest paid in the UK, will have a negative impact on our ability to recruit and retain nursing staff moving forward.’
Nurses in Northern Ireland remain the only nurses in the UK without a revised pay deal after rejecting an initial offer of 4% in December 2022. The DoH has confirmed there is no budget in place for 2023-24 to fund nurses’ pay.
RCN Northern Ireland had called for clarity on whether the revised pay offer for NHS staff on Agenda for Change contracts in England will apply there, as the country does not have a functioning government, but nurses remain unclear on the pay they will receive.
The RCN has not ruled out further strikes in the country.
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