Express & Star

Record bill for Walsall Manor staff

The cost of temporary staff rose by more than £350,000 in just a month as Walsall Manor Hospital battled rising patient numbers and staff sickness.

Published

A total of £1.8 million was spent on agency, bank and locum workers at Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust during August – the highest this year.

It comes despite the trust being in the process of recruiting more than 70 new nurses as it seeks to cope with an increasing demand on its services.

See also: Walsall Manor fined over A&E delays.

A report to the trust board highlighted the need for locum cover in anaesthetics and orthopaedics as among the reasons for needing temporary workers.

Sickness absence was high in critical care and some other wards and the was a rise in the number of staff needed to help look out for patients at risk of falls.

Ian Baines, director of finance and performance, said: "The Trust has continued to see increased pressure placed on our services over the past few months.

"This unfortunately means that we sometimes need to rely on temporary workers to ensure our patients are safe and treated effectively at all times by the right number of staff.

"We are working hard to reduce, where possible, the money we spend in this area and are recruiting to a number of vacancies across the organisation and expect that these positions will be filled in the coming months." The trust is already more than £500,000 behind its savings target for this financial year, as it is forced to fork out on coping with increasing admissions.Bank expenditure increased by £183,000 to £640,000, agency by £106,000 to £703,000 and locum costs went from £61,000 to £500,000. The overall cost of £1.84m was by far the highest amount so far this year, which has seen just over £8m spent during the first five months of the financial year. The record amount was just over £2m last autumn.

See also: Walsall Manor deficit spiralling.

The report said: "Temporary staffing has increased due to managing patients at risk of falls, increase in patient acuity, staff sickness, additional bed capacity and covering vacancies."

Health chiefs announced earlier this year they were seeking to recruit 70 new nurses by the start of 2015. This is now expected to increase in further to improve night cover on wards. The aim is to ensure all wards have at least three registered nurses during an evening, along with care support workers.

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.