No more agency staff are going to be used by the NHS.

kissit

hiya all,

as you know i work for the NHS ,but this week i have heard that they are not using anymore agency staff in any department as from the middle of october09.

if you ask me this is going to be a joke because the nhs is allready streatching to breaking point.

cheers.

Oldernotwiser

Does your hospital not employ its own bank staff?

kissit

yep we have contracted staff,bank staff and agency.but what there are trying to do is to get all agency staff onto bank to save money.i think there pay the agency £14 but the agency pay the staff £5.73 a hour.but if there all sign up to bank then there only have to pay £6.50.more money in the bank.me personally i cannot see it working out.

Oldernotwiser

kissit wrote: »

yep we have contracted staff,bank staff and agency.but what there are trying to do is to get all agency staff onto bank to save money.i think there pay the agency £14 but the agency pay the staff £5.73 a hour.but if there all sign up to bank then there only have to pay £6.50.more money in the bank.me personally i cannot see it working out.

It sounds like an excellent idea to me; most agency staff would far rather be employed on the bank and saving the NHS money must be a good thing.

Why do you think it won't work?

Ebany

A few things immediately strike me.

1) the agency staff may not only work at the hospital, and so will find it a lot more awkward to juggle shifts between two different employers, and so they may not like this.
2) The NHS won't 'only' have to pay them £6.50, it will have to pay them £6.50, plus holiday pay, plus employers NI, plus at least statutory sick/maternity/paternity pay, and probably more.
3)Then there are the costs involved in recuiting, which for positions like these (I am guessing this is healthcare assistants) where they probably have to have CRB checks, comprehensive reference histories, training etc, can become quite high (and this cost is incurred whether they do 1 shift or 1 year...).

While they will save on the agency fee, they will lose a lot of flexibility (unless they are going to take on bank every single suitable worker that would have been through an agency). In situations like this where there should be minimum staffing levels sometimes you just have to do what you can.

kissit

on a bad note if the agency staff are not up to scratch they just ring the agency and say no good please send me another member.if you are on bank then you have to go through all the written warnings stuff or just not offer them hours.

as for me i am contracted for the evening and do 15 hours a week but the last 5 weeks i have been doing overtime which i have been getting over 20 hours overtime each week and the boss even said this place runs on overtime what with holidays and loads of sick.

getmore4less

A lot of the staffing problems in the NHS are due to understaffing in the first place.

Understaff and you are dependent on the good will of the workers to do extra shifts or you run the wards short staffed.

You also become dependant on those that can be picky about their shifts meaning that a core end up getting less choice.

More stress higher sickness levels which makes the problem worse and then the bank/agency are needed to fill the jobs.

Over staff and it is cheaper in the long run especialy if you can get some part timers on zero hour contracts to help fill the gaps.

clairec79

I know several trusts who don't use agencies - only bank staff, works well enough

kissit

dont get me wrong i was a bank staff b4 i got the evening contract and to be honest i am glad of the overtime but they will still have to employ more staff to cover.
mind you my boss said that the hospital runs on overtime.

bumpoowee

This sounds like an excellent idea my only question would be why has it taken so long for it to occur to anyone?

I've seen first hand how the NHS !!!!es money up the wall on unnecessary costs and it needs to stop.

kissit

good idea in pratice but as me and all the staff say to many management....