THE cost of employing staff from outside recruitment agencies at University Hospital Limerick has skyrocketed from €1.2 million in 2010 to €15.2 million in 2014.
Information obtained from the HSE in response to a parliamentary question shows that spending on agency staff at UHL came to €15,297,000 in 2014.
The figures were revealed to the Limerick Post by Sinn Féin General Election candidate Cllr Maurice Quinlivan who has expressed deep concern over the increase in the cost of agency staff at the Limerick hospital.
“It is simply mind-blowing that the cost of agency staff at University Hospital Limerick came to more than €15 million last year,” he said.
“This is ten times more than what was spent in 2010, the year before the government came to office when the figure stood at €1,292,000. This is also the highest agency spend outside of the Dublin area,” he explained.
The City North representative described the €14 million increase in agency costs at UHL, over the lifetime of the current government, as “scandalous”.
“The moratorium on recruitment and promotion across the public sector, coupled with previous cuts to graduate entry nursing salaries, has resulted in a huge reduction in staffing levels. This has dramatically increased the reliance of the HSE on expensive agency staff.
“There have been restrictions on the recruitment of permanent staff members by the HSE and as such, positions within the health service have had to be filled by the use of costly agency staff. As a result, our hospitals, including University Hospital Limerick, have been crippled by spiralling wage costs and chronic understaffing.”
Cllr Quinlivan is also of the view that reliance on agency staff has increased as a consequence of rigid employment control measures.
“Frontline services have been decimated and highly skilled and experienced nurses and doctors have been forced to seek work abroad. The enormity of the government spend on agency staff at University Hospital Limerick can be contrasted with the pitiful investment in alleviating chronic overcrowding in our hospitals. This situation has reached record levels in the emergency department at UHL where 763 people were on trollies in October”, Cllr Quinlivan added.
In response, a statement from the UL Hospital Group stated, “A key priority for UL Hospitals, in line with the HSE national service plan 2015, is to reduce reliance on agency and overtime. This ambition is being realised over time in spite of the difficult recruitment environment faced by UL Hospitals and other hospitals in Ireland and internationally.”
“UL Hospitals Group has converted a significant amount of agency to full-time staff during this year. And the group has also been actively involved in recruiting staff to fill vacant posts previously filled by agency or overtime. A significant amount of our agency costs in 2014 was due to medical agency. However, we have since appointed a number of new consultants and have filled some of our junior doctor posts which had previously been relying on agency.
“In an effort to recruit our own staff, we have been engaging in both local and national recruitment and have attended a number of recruitment fairs both in Ireland and the UK over the past number of weeks – including last weekend in London. We have also offered permanent contracts to all our 2015 graduate nurses and midwives (University of Limerick).
“A combination of agency conversion and additional posts has seen the numbers employed by the UL Hospitals Group rise from 3074 to 3285 WTE (whole-time equivalents) between January and the end of September 2015. Agency costs at UL Hospitals Group have decreased by 19%, or €3.2 million, over the first nine months of this year while basic pay costs have increased by 5%, or €5 million, over the same period. This reflects the continuing trend of converting agency to staff where possible.”
