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THE HEALTH SERVICE Executive (HSE) spent at least over €300 million on agency staff last year, and was on course to exceed the €318 million it spent the previous year.
In the first 11 months of last year, a total of €305.17 million was spent on agency staff across the health service with University Hospital Limerick and Naas General Hospital spending in excess of €10 million each.
Agency staff in hospitals and other parts of the HSE aren’t employees of the health service. They work for an external agency and the HSE pays far more for the use of agency staff than it pays for their own employees.
The spend of approximately €913,000 a day follows the trend of recent years of high agency spending within the HSE.
The spending on agency staff in the past decade has more than doubled, and the increase in 2018 was the largest since 2014.
The figures were released to Sinn Féin TD and health spokesperson Louise O’Reilly via parliamentary question.
Between January and November last year, €148 million was spent on agency staff in hospitals, while a further €157 million was spent on agency staff in community health organisations.
Across both areas, €87 million was spent under the criteria of medical/dental. This includes the likes of doctors, GPs and dentists.
A further €72 million was spent on agency nursing staff. Administrative agency staff cost over €17 million while support staff cost €102 million.
Agency spend across the health service has increased year-on-year – with the exception of 2012 and 2015 – throughout the last decade.
In 2010, the HSE was spending €135.9 million on agency staff. That has more than doubled since. Between 2013 and 2014, agency spend rose from €185 million to €268 million.
In all, just over €2.3 billion was spent on agency staff within the HSE in the 2010s.
Last year, the HSE introduced a recruitment embargo aimed at specific posts. Frustrated healthcare workers who had been told they would start permanent job had these posts put on hold.
At Christmas, TheJournal.ie reported the angry pieces of correspondence sent by healthcare workers to health minister Simon Harris, urging an end to the freeze.
One wrote: “There are at least three agency posts in my team while I wait on a HSE panel for a permanent job. How can this situation make fiscal or ethical sense?”
The issue has been repeatedly highlighted by unions within the sector as failing patients, adding to waiting lists and ultimately costing the HSE more in that they need to use more expensive agency staff to plug the gap caused by these roles not being filled.
Sinn Féin’s O’Reilly said that the hundreds of millions spent on agency staff is “not good value for money in the first instance, and it is not good for patients or other full-time staff”.
“The HSE is now spending nearly €1 million a day on temporary agency staff,” she said.
The over-reliance on the use of costly agency staff is a direct result of the escalation of the recruitment and retention crisis under this government; unless the recruitment and retention crisis is addressed then this rampant agency spending will continue to cripple the health service.
I would like to know how many ministers or TDs oe ex ministers and TDs are involved in these agencies.????
@James Dooley: a million a day is alot and they dont recognise the ambulance drivers union id prefer the mafority of the money went to the people saving the lives rather than the groups trying to make a profit from saving jnjured people
@James Dooley: Are you just curious or are you suggesting that there is a conspiracy of politicians (present and former) preventing recruitment in the health service so they can make money? If it’s the latter, I think you might be overestimating their competence and influence.
As an agency worker myself, I can say we don’t get pensions, I don’t get sick leave, I pay for all my own training that hse employees get for free… So while agency workers are expensive in the short term, I do wonder are we actually cheaper in the long term?
@Kevin Fitzpatrick: do you get get paid a lot better as an agency worker if you don’t mind me asking?
@Jane: nope, we follow hse pay scales. I know some agency’s pay more, but the biggest most commonly used agency’s will pay hse rates
@Kevin Fitzpatrick: so is it that you can’t get permanent work with the HSE or do you prefer the agency work? I always assumed agencies paid more.
@Jane: people have various reasons for doing agency. Some are waiting for permanent roles others do agency to suit their lifestyle as you have more flexibility in your hours. For example, young mothers do agency to maintain a skill level but not tie themselves to a contract, others are full time hse employees doing some extra hours in a different service for added experience, others just like the ability to have more control of the hours they work.
@Jane: we get paid better becouse we don’t have a pension taken out of our wages we are on the same rates as HSE staff.
@Fran O’Keeffe: well that’s what I’m wondering. If this was broken down to how much it costs per individual how would it work out. The pension is a huge factor here.
@Kevin Fitzpatrick: yes. But you are not paying the prd tax or union subsciption.
@Kevin Fitzpatrick: I hear you when you say agency work can suit a lot of peoples lifestyle. But it seems rights that a lot of workers have traditionally had, not just in the HSE, like pensions, sick leave, training, etc. have been converted in to profit for the privileged few private sector agency owners.
@Tom: Union subscriptions are voluntary, tax is not.
Time to remove the cartel of FFG….
Will be more articles today and for rest of the week attacking SF.
The result is more votes for SF.
Media have lost this trick.
True fear is in the establishment.
Change is now.
@Willy Mc Entire: get off the cross. The article you are commenting on is critical of present government and you still make it a SF pity party.
I won’t vote SF and I never will but at least when they’re in government the responsibilities will fall to them and this poor me act will have to stop.
@Jane: Check out the yarns published in the Irish Independent this morning. Shooting down SF even though they have never been in power. It would suit them better to report on the failings of FG and FF (current and previous governments).
@David Corrigan: I had a quick look at the info there. There’s one story from Eoghan Harris about 8th down on website. Come on David, you’d swear the indo was covered in them.
Like I said I look forward to next week.
@Jane: Jane I truly believe SF are higher than the polls are suggesting. Highest in fact. Media and FFG are on the run and have fear. Watch that astonishing attacks continue for few days remaining. Pathetic and undemocratic to preserve the cartel , FFG after 100 years of ineptitude…
@Jane: I counted 4 yarn’s in their paper this morning. Every day last week they published something negative about SF’s rise in the polls. FG and FF have had it their own way for decades and have achieved nothing. The other political parties are moving in the right direction and the sooner they break FG/FF’s hold on our country the better.
@Willy Mc Entire: well we’ll know soon enough. I don’t like this narrative thrown around by some that SF are put upon by media, it’s too Trumplike for me.
Pay proper wages and good conditions get wrid of agencies and stop wasting money.
@Mick McGuinness: as the agency worker above shows, is cheaper to run an agency system as there are no overheads like management, prsi or pensions. They are generally more flexible, and cover at loaded times. Switching all agency staff to HSE employees would cost multiple of billions more.
I’m an agency nurse myself . We get the same pay as Hse nurses but no pension . Most people do it for lifestyle reasons usually kids but I know the agency gets 2/3 of what the government give . I get 230 for a 12 hour shift I believe they are invoicing 680 on me so the agency is only person winning . They need to cut out the agency and pay agency staff direct or increase nurses wages and flexibility under hse . At the moment hospital are being held together by agency staff which is quite scary seeing as you might be near running a ward you have only walked into for the first time that day
@Louise O’Byrne: agreed, locum agency the big winner here. Taxpayer the big loser. Political negligence
@pjduffy: Those figures are indeed apalling. And all overseen by Simon Harris / FG. And don’t forget FF’s support/head in sand.
THE FG AND FF WAY
You can be sure plenty, sure half the consultants are on agency contracts in the ed departments as well as the regs, no one proper gets contracts. Out of that 365 million at least 150 is profit
An example of pay of staff at registrar level (doctor with a minimum of 3 years experience)
HSE pay scale goes from just under €56k to just under €66k, so taking someone on €61k, they get an hourly rate of about €30/hour.
They will get T+1/4 for OT meaning about €37.50, and they will get Tx2 for bank holidays and Sundays.
Locum rates for such a registrar by the agency which provides about 90% of HSE contracts are €45/hour, €55/hour for hours outside 9 to 5 Mon-Sat, and €60/hour on bank holidays.
A locum can make a lot of money by choosing to do the antisocial hours or lots of overtime, but as already stated, they don’t get pensions, sick pay, training, mat leave or a bunch of other stuff.
Doctors are paid well, locums too. But neither so much as media suggest sometimes.
Fed up of everyone saying how much agency staff cost if there’s no agency in the hospital’s there are no hospitals.
@Fran O’Keeffe: you’re right but that doesn’t make great practice it’s a false economy if the HSE department of health and the money men actually were willing to pay newly qualified staff in particular proper pay scales look at the cost of living in Dublin Apply a Dublin allowance then we might be able to retain staff in Ireland. I know a good few nurses do agency for experience actually do get paid more than a nurse out on overtime then head off to elsewhere in the world. I do regular overtime for extras in life but I would rather have more staff
@Laura Mulholland Weatherwax: we don’t get more money then HSE staff we have extra becouse we don’t get a pension taken out of our wages and a lot of people would not take a HSE job.
@Fran O’Keeffe: So you have 2 options. Either pay in to a private pension which will bring your income down to HSE level anyway. Or have no pension when you retire. Is the latter not a concern for you?
@Fran O’Keeffe: you get paid more than staff on a ward doing overtime. I have spoken with nursing colleagues who do agency rather than overtime due to this. As another person posted a pension is important and never to early to think about especially with changes to career average pension. You’re right not everyone wants to work in HSE that’s there choice but there is a helluva lot of nurses leaving Ireland that would like a HSE job but have better options elsewhere.
@Fran O’Keeffe: theres not a person working in hospitals who don’t appreciate what,agency staff contribute . If were ever lose that contribution it would make it all but impossible to cope. People work through agency for a myriad of reasons. May it continue
@Fran O’Keeffe: No one is complaining about the agency staff but about the cost of it. The agency staff are only receiving a small portion of what is paid out for them and the rest goes to the recruitment firm. Why can’t the HSE recruit them and then save on the cost of these private firms making a fortune off the backs of these workers. This would be to the benefit of staff and their patients. No hospital benefits from this recruitment embargo.They are forced to hire agency nurses and doctors and fork out double the money. Where is the logic in that?
Not every post is needed daily. Not to defend the HSE but agencies have their uses too.
I have done an Interview early August last year and still waiting on a permanent job for a post. It is unfair on people abroad waiting to come home for their jobs and they want to settle back in Ireland. The HSE should recruit for a national bank recruitment system for ad hoc staff which would save millions
If I could close all agencies down, I would. They have ruined this Country. What bright spark ever allowed these in. My disabled Daughter is subjected to different strangers looking after her each day because of those money grabbing people who only take agency work because they get paid more money and don’t have to do a normal 40 hour week for it. Agencies should be banned from Ireland.
@Margaret Doyle: I am an agency worker and i am offended by your ” money grabbing people” remark. You should consider yourself very lucky to have care provision for your daughter. Many people in Ireland dont have this help. Have you considered the possibility that some agency workers might have a son or a daughter with a disability and need flexibility that a contract may not have?
@Margaret Doyle: I am an agency worker and dont appreciate being called a money grabber. You should be very thankful for having care support for your daughter because there are families that dont and struggle 24hrs a day. ” different strangers” are looking after your daughter because your care provider is doing that. Have you considered the possibility that agency workers might have a disabled son or daughter themselves and need flexibility that a contract cannot allow? Us agency workers are too often blamed and undervalued by people like you for the state of the healthcare system. We are hard working tax paying citizens and doing nothing wrong by working in a company you disapprove of.
Can we find out who controls these agencies are they irish
@Joseph Duggan: I think they might be lizards in humans suits.
HSE MANAGMENT SHOULD BE ALL FIRED,AND A WHOLE NEW BOARD ASSEMBLED TO SET UP HSE FROM SCRATCH. AND THAT IDIOT HARRIS SHOULD BE KICKED OUT AS FAR AS HE CAN BE KICKED
Agency staff case
- no training costs
- no pension payments
- no sick leave issues
- match operational needs
If HSE sick leave was dealt with – same as private sector – no need for agency staff!
About 7000 nurses @ approx 50000 euro a Yr
have your say