Temporary nurse spending soars to £6m

Wednesday 21 November 2018

Nearly £6million has been spent on sourcing temporary nurses from agencies to plug staffing shortfalls in Jersey's health sector over the last two years amid a worsening recruitment crisis, it has emerged.

In total, the Health Department has paid out £5,963,007 to nursing agencies since the beginning of 2016, with 11 of these being based in the UK.

The figures came in response to a question from St. Helier Deputy Rob Ward to the Health Minister, Deputy Richard Renouf.

Pictured: The Health Minister Deputy Richard Renouf (left) was asked by Deputy Rob Ward (right) about nursing agency spend.

Temporary staff are employed by the Department to fill the extensive vacancies currently plaguing Jersey’s health sector, which stood at over 330 as of last month - many of which relating to nursing and Health Care Assistant roles. 

The St. Helier Deputy asked for a breakdown of the figures to show how much each temporary member of staff was paid and what “proportion of the contract [was] paid to the agency."

However, the Minister said he was unable to provide this, stating that details of pay arrangements are “between the agency and the individual”, and not disclosed to his department.

This same reason was given as to why the Department could not detail how much of the fee was kept by the agencies.

Pictured: Jersey nurses have spoken out against working conditions which have left them "completely shredded morale-wise".

The Minister also disclosed that 11 of the agencies used by the Department are based in the UK, but it is not clear how many are being used in total. 

The news comes as many nurses, who claim to be  “completely shredded morale-wise”, have decided to “withdraw goodwill” and are refusing to work unpaid extra time – such as filling gaps of 15 minutes or more on wards while waiting for agency nurses to start their shifts – amid an escalating dispute with the States over pay.

With the hospital building also in decline, Health’s Group Managing Director recently said that the staffing shortage could worsen due to low staff morale and a lack of appeal to join the team during the construction phase.

In a report appraising the clinical risks with building the island’s future hospital on its current site, which was considered by a group of politicians tasked with reviewing the site selection process, Mr Sainsbury wrote: “We are needing to staff units to higher levels to ensure we have sufficient oversight of patients… Staffing pressures and recruitment issues place further strain on our ability to have the required levels of staff for these environments.”

Pictured: Concerns surrounding "staffing pressures" and "recruitment issues" were raised by Health's Group Managing Director in the recent Hospital Policy Development Board review of the Future Hospital project.

Efforts have been made to find permanent staff to plug the gaps. Last year, Health attempted to attract foreign staff to the island by offering a relocation package of £8,000 as part of a web campaign entitled ‘Care Rediscovered’, which remains ongoing.

Meanwhile, in an effort to increase the amount of home-grown nurses, the Department has been running a nursing degree in Jersey linked with the University of Chester since 2014.

Prospective applicants are now being sought for next year’s programme, with a series of talks on the degree planned at Peter Crill House for next week and in early December.