NEWS
Chief nurse urges trusts to fill vacancies with permanent staff Northern Ireland’s chief nurse has written to the chief executives of the country’s five health and social care trusts telling them to create ‘permanent posts’ where there has been persistent use of bank and agency staff. In an interview with Nursing Standard, Charlotte McArdle (right) said she contacted the chief executives to remind them of their responsibility to ensure ‘vacancies are filled’. ‘There is a lot of bank and agency in the system,’ she said. ‘I do not think it is always the best approach to staffing and it is not an efficient way to run the health service.’ Figures obtained by Nursing Standard show that in 2011/12 the Belfast, Northern, South Eastern, Southern and Western trusts spent a combined £7,481,089 on agency nurses, while in 2012/13 this figure rose to £10,460,553. Ms McArdle said creating more permanent posts to reduce reliance on agency staff would help trusts meet their staffing requirements in adult medical and surgical units. ‘Permanent staff have a higher level of skill, they know the ward, they know the environment and they know the patients – and that is what I would like to see progressed,’ she added.
PRESS EYE
By Alistair Kleebauer
Ms McArdle has also been given responsibility for the country’s training budget for registered nurses, which was previously managed by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety human resources directorate under health minister Edwin Poots.
Funding transfer
A date for the transfer of the £7.3 million budget for 2013/14 has not yet been agreed. Ms McArdle said she will be reviewing the budget over the next six months to see if it is ‘fit for purpose’ and to see how it can be used to commission post-registration education at master’s level.
‘The issue for the minister is that nurses are not being released for training so, to improve that, he is moving the budget to me because I have closer working relationships with the trusts’ directors of nursing,’ said Ms McArdle in March. In a separate interview, RCN Northern Ireland director Janice Smyth said there has been an over-reliance on bank and agency nurses. ‘We have objected to the way trusts are using bank nurses, rather than staffing nursing teams properly. We believe it has fragmented those teams and frustrated their ability to provide patients with the care they would want.’
NHS should back local hospitals, says new chief executive The NHS should follow other western European countries and treat more patients in smaller local hospitals, says its new chief executive Simon Stevens. Ahead of a major speech at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool this week, Mr Stevens told a national newspaper that the NHS must return to treating more patients in their 12 june 4 :: vol 28 no 40 :: 2014
communities. He added that the NHS had fallen victim to a ‘steady push towards centralisation’ resulting in fewer hospitals. Mr Stevens, who took over from Sir David Nicholson in April, said: ‘A number of other countries have found it possible to run viable local hospitals serving smaller communities than sometimes we think are sustainable in the NHS.
RCN head of policy Howard Catton said: ‘If we are talking about the ageing population and people with complex medical conditions, cottage hospitals and care homes can play roles in terms of rehabilitation, respite and providing support to people to better manage their conditions so they can stay at home longer.’
NURSING STANDARD
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Chief nurse urges trusts to fill vacancies with permanent staff Northern Ireland’s chief nurse has written to the chief executives of the country’s five health and social care trusts telling them to create ‘permanent posts’ where there has been persistent use of bank and agency staff. In an interview with Nursing Standard, Charlotte McArdle (right) said she contacted the chief executives to remind them of their responsibility to ensure ‘vacancies are filled’. ‘There is a lot of bank and agency in the system,’ she said. ‘I do not think it is always the best approach to staffing and it is not an efficient way to run the health service.’ Figures obtained by Nursing Standard show that in 2011/12 the Belfast, Northern, South Eastern, Southern and Western trusts spent a combined £7,481,089 on agency nurses, while in 2012/13 this figure rose to £10,460,553. Ms McArdle said creating more permanent posts to reduce reliance on agency staff would help trusts meet their staffing requirements in adult medical and surgical units. ‘Permanent staff have a higher level of skill, they know the ward, they know the environment and they know the patients – and that is what I would like to see progressed,’ she added.
PRESS EYE
By Alistair Kleebauer
Ms McArdle has also been given responsibility for the country’s training budget for registered nurses, which was previously managed by the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety human resources directorate under health minister Edwin Poots.
Funding transfer
A date for the transfer of the £7.3 million budget for 2013/14 has not yet been agreed. Ms McArdle said she will be reviewing the budget over the next six months to see if it is ‘fit for purpose’ and to see how it can be used to commission post-registration education at master’s level.
‘The issue for the minister is that nurses are not being released for training so, to improve that, he is moving the budget to me because I have closer working relationships with the trusts’ directors of nursing,’ said Ms McArdle in March. In a separate interview, RCN Northern Ireland director Janice Smyth said there has been an over-reliance on bank and agency nurses. ‘We have objected to the way trusts are using bank nurses, rather than staffing nursing teams properly. We believe it has fragmented those teams and frustrated their ability to provide patients with the care they would want.’
NHS should back local hospitals, says new chief executive The NHS should follow other western European countries and treat more patients in smaller local hospitals, says its new chief executive Simon Stevens. Ahead of a major speech at the NHS Confederation conference in Liverpool this week, Mr Stevens told a national newspaper that the NHS must return to treating more patients in their 12 june 4 :: vol 28 no 40 :: 2014
communities. He added that the NHS had fallen victim to a ‘steady push towards centralisation’ resulting in fewer hospitals. Mr Stevens, who took over from Sir David Nicholson in April, said: ‘A number of other countries have found it possible to run viable local hospitals serving smaller communities than sometimes we think are sustainable in the NHS.
RCN head of policy Howard Catton said: ‘If we are talking about the ageing population and people with complex medical conditions, cottage hospitals and care homes can play roles in terms of rehabilitation, respite and providing support to people to better manage their conditions so they can stay at home longer.’
NURSING STANDARD
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 09, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
