More than £5 million spent on agency staff in Dudley in one month, figures show
More than £5 million has been spent on temporary staff in one month at a hospital in the Black Country despite the use of them falling slightly.
The Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust spent £5,355,542 in May on the workers – almost one million more than the £4,472,930 sum in April.
Agency use fell from 210.11 whole-time equivalents (WTE) in April to 198.60 in May, although costs increased from £1,720,398 to £1,954,736.
And the usage of bank staff – a pool of workers the trust can call on when work is available – fell from 560.23 in April to 524.84 in May, whilst costs increased from £2,752,532 to £3,400,806.
Meanwhile current vacancies at the trust, which runs Russells Hall Hospital on Pensnett Road in Dudley, stand at around 14 per cent with a drive now under way to fill those roles. Sickness and absence rates fell to around five per cent in May, down from 6.82 per cent in April.
Alan Duffell, interim chief people officer at the trust, said at a boarding meeting on Thursday: "In relation to our own vacancies, we're standing at about 14 per cent. Our drive to reduce our vacancies is critical moving forward.
"We have seen a reduction in sickness absences as well, but I'm not getting too excited because we've seen significant fluctuation in this in terms of Covid-19. It's good to note that reduction, but we need to see this clearly over a longer period of time.
"Our bank use and agency use have decreased, but the spend has gone up so clearly some of the issues and direction of travel are affecting trusts in terms of rates going forward."
Mr Duffell said the NHS' public sector pay award of an average of four to five per cent would be backdated to April 1, with staff likely to see it within their pay-packets at the end of September.
