HSE spent €430m on agency staff in eight months

THE HSE spent almost €430m on agency staff between January and August last year, The Echo can reveal.

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act shows the health service spent around €428m on agency staff costs during the eight-month period.

A breakdown of the expenditure revealed around €159m was spent on agency staff for support services; €95m on nursing staff; €93m on medical and dental staff; €53m on management and administration staff; €24.6m on paramedical staff, and €2.5m on maintenance and technical staff.

A spokesperson for the HSE highlighted issues in recruiting and retaining staff amid a “global health workforce challenge”, and cited recruitment difficulties among agency organisations.

“The available supply in the labour market for the health workforce continues to be a challenge,” the spokesperson stated.

“This is not unique to Ireland, but rather a global health workforce challenge. Recruitment and retention of clinical, nursing and other key staff is a constant challenge and impacts adversely on the ability to maintain safe and effective services.

“Therefore, as part of the HSE’s overarching resourcing approach, whereby direct employment does not meet the needs of service delivery requirements, agency staff are utilised,” added the spokesperson.

They said this can be for a variety of reasons, including sick absence replacement, both long- and short-term, to replace vacancies currently being actively recruited to, to replace maternity leave etc.

“Subsequent to the Government announcement to reverse the Haddington Road Agreement, this has placed additional resourcing requirements a priority, with the replacement of lost hours in critical services areas,” said the spokesperson.

“In advance of the filling of these hours via direct employees, there is a need to prioritise critical services for replacement through agency and overtime.

“Collectively, these give rise to the utilisation of agency resources while simultaneously running large scale domestic and international recruitment campaigns to fill through direct employment.”

The spokesperson also revealed that, in a number of instances in recent times, the HSE has been unable to fill a vacancy even via agency.

“The agencies have indicated that they are experiencing difficulty in recruiting themselves due to a lack of availability and also accommodation availability and costs,” they explained.

“The majority of agency spend is salary and statutory pay costs such as PRSI, holiday allowance etc. In line with the Protection of Employees (Part-Time Work) Act, agency staff have the right to the same basic employment conditions, this includes basic pay, shift premiums, unsocial hours and Sunday rates.”

It was previously revealed that the HSE spent around €619m on agency staff costs in 2022, and €568m in 2021.

Speaking to The Echo, Sinn Féin TD Thomas Gould said the latest figures “show us clearly that no action has been taken to reduce agency spend in hospitals in the lifetime of this Government”.

“We saw similar figures in 2021. There is a clear need to properly resource our hospitals and health care facilities,” said Mr Gould.

“What these figures show is a health service that is constantly in crisis mode.

“Spending these eye-watering sums on agency staff does not represent good value for money and does not deliver the continuity of care patients need.”