NHS England

Yammy

GrannyGravy13

The NHS has always used Agency Staff whether they be nurses, doctors, clerical or cleaners.

NHS Scotland’s bill was £92 million last year for nurses alone Paddyann54

Your right Granny Gravy. When I taught most of the mums who were nurses were agency, so they could choose their hours and holidays. I've been retired for a long time.

Use of agency staff is a more recent phenomenon than you’d expect in the NHS in fact. There were medical agencies, primarily used for locums to cover long term sickness, but it’s only in the last 30 years or so that agencies have sprung up for other professions. I worked in a large teaching hospital in the nineties where the Chief Exec banned all non medical agency staff being employed, we had relief staff employed by the hospital who filled the gaps. It worked well - it wouldn’t now, because there aren’t enough staff.

GrannyGravy13

The NHS has always used Agency Staff whether they be nurses, doctors, clerical or cleaners.

NHS Scotland’s bill was £92 million last year for nurses alone Paddyann54

Your right Granny Gravy. When I taught most of the mums who were nurses were agency, so they could choose their hours and holidays. I've been retired for a long time.

GrannyGravy13

The NHS has always used Agency Staff whether they be nurses, doctors, clerical or cleaners.

NHS Scotland’s bill was £92 million last year for nurses alone Paddyann54

It's not just in England, Scotland has a huge recruitment problem too, as has Wales

These firms are often based in tax havens too.

I do remember the nurse at a clinic I attended telling me he was going to be on holiday for the next two weeks. When I asked if he was going anywhere, he said "back in here with the agency, covering my own job".

There’s a crisis in public services as a result of Conservative policies over 11 years. The government has been fuelling the. Public-private dispute, talking about gold plated pensions and conditions of service to make it appear public servants are somehow over indulged. It’s no surprise that refusing wages, wrecking pension agreements has police/teachers/social workers/paramedics and ‘junior’ doctors leaving to work for agencies or in the private sector. Private sector wages are higher than those in the public sector.

It’s too easy to say the nhs would be ok if managers/pen pushers were reduced. It’s that approach that means I hold on for 40 mins to speak to an assistant at the DWP, bring back ‘pen pushers’

Agency staff don’t have the benefits permanent staff do but they earn more and can pick and choose the work they do.

We need to show we value public servants, rather than speak if them in a derogatory manner, spit on them, assault them and more

Aveline

This crisis won't be helped by merely doling out more money to Drs and nurses. I want to hear how many more training places are being provided so that in four to six years we just might have enough staff. Until then?

I want to hear how many more training places are being provided so that in four to six years we just might have enough staff

Yes.

And without underpaid staff coming out of training with huge debts to pay off.

GrannyGravy13

The NHS has always used Agency Staff whether they be nurses, doctors, clerical or cleaners.

NHS Scotland’s bill was £92 million last year for nurses alone Paddyann54

Sorry that was for Agency Nurses

I despair of trying to make up the numbers of nurses we need. There's bound to be a time lag as they train.

The NHS has always used Agency Staff whether they be nurses, doctors, clerical or cleaners.

NHS Scotland’s bill was £92 million last year for nurses alone Paddyann54

This crisis won't be helped by merely doling out more money to Drs and nurses. I want to hear how many more training places are being provided so that in four to six years we just might have enough staff. Until then?

This is relevant

www.theguardian.com/education/2023/jan/14/ministers-refuse-fund-medical-school-uk-doctor-shortage?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Before anyone goes ‘oh, the Guardian, wokery nonsense’, it was reported locally last week but with less of a national overview

www.worcesternews.co.uk/news/23233210.nhs-crisis-will-go-no-trainee-doctors-says-worcester-university/

Surely we all know that hospitals and care homes use agency staff and that it’s very costly to do so. The agencies are not siphoning money from the NHS. It’s either agency staff or no staff - which would you prefer?

And they are not ‘privatised NHS agencies’.