by Alan Jacques
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.
