GWH just can't get the staff, spending £1.87m on agency nurses

[Northerner]

THE cost of employing agency nurses at the GWH has soared by more than £1m in two years, new figures show.

In the second quarter of the 2012/13 financial year, the Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust spent £360,546 on agency staff, according to a report by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

In 2013/14, the figure jumped to £1,877,083 for the same period, which health bosses say was due to a national nursing shortage and a recruitment drive, which saw more agency staff employed.

http://www.gazetteandherald.co.uk/n...es____three_times_as_much_as_the_year_before/

 

[HOBIE]

Might have something to do with Labour not training the young generation. Torys are training Apprentices etc for the future. 😉

 

[Northerner]

Might have something to do with Labour not training the young generation. Torys are training Apprentices etc for the future. 😉

Or maybe it's because the Coalition have cut training for nurses, landed them with huge Uni fees, ruined morale and cut pay, making hospitals an unattractive career option and resulting in many leaving to work elsewhere in the world?

 

[HOBIE]

Yes like Toney getting us involved in wars that the Russians & Americans could not sort 😉

 

[Copepod]

I reckon the nurse recruitment and retention problems in the run up to 2000, when Project 2000 was started, which meant the end of apprenticeship type training with education periods in schools of nursing, but far more time spent in wards, departments, out with ambulances etc. That type of training was replaced by training based in colleges, leading to diplomas, which brought some advantages, particularly some shared training with other health care professional - physios, OTs, radiographers etc - but also reduced time spent on wards. Financial arrangements changed from earning a wage, admittedly low, but it made you feel a welcome and valued member of the workforce, and often cheap nurses home accommodation, to grants, which meant far less money to spend, and much less chance of cheap hospital accommodation. There have been nursing degrees for decades, but there were always far fewer following that route to registration than apprenticeship, then diploma. Also, there was a phasing out of SEN [State Enrolled Nurse] training, which had been 2 years, compared with 3 years to RGN training. There were equivalents in other fields, including mental handicap [it was called that, would be called learning difficulties these days], mental [illness], children.

The changeover was largely driven by nursing bodies such as Rcn [Royal College of Nursing], who wanted a more academic profession, thinking it would bring more respect. The political aspect has come in since then, with various governments increasing or decreasing numbers of nurses in training. However, drop out rates are far higher with diploma type training than apprencticeship training.

 

[HOBIE]

Is that because a nurse has to have a Degree before being let in ? When I said about appretiships I was talking about trades men. Not nurses 🙂