Nursing: More than one in 10 posts vacant at end of 2019

More than one in 10 registered nursing posts in Northern Eire have been vacant at the end of 2019, with momentary staffing costing the well being service £115m a 12 months.

That’s in response to a report by the Northern Eire Audit Workplace (NIAO).

It discovered vacancies extra than trebled from 770 in 2013 to over 2,700 in 2019.

The Division of Well being mentioned nursing coaching numbers had been elevated and it needed to alter how companies have been delivered.

There are 2,100 unfilled registered nursing posts and the NIAO report notes an extra 1,600 nurses are wanted to make sure secure staffing ranges.

Sinn Féin’s Colm Gildernew, the chair of the Stormont Well being Committee, mentioned the report confirmed the necessity for funding in well being service workers.

“The general public deserves this and so do all well being and social care employees,” he added.

‘Insupportable strain probably’

Within the report entitled Workforce Planning for Nurses and Midwives, auditor common Kieran Donnelly mentioned Northern Eire was going through nursing and midwifery workers shortages, which, if not addressed, are more likely to go away the Well being and Social Care (HSC) sector going through “insupportable strain”, with “substantial additional motion and monitoring” wanted.

That’s in spite of vital measures taken by the Division of Well being to handle staffing gaps, together with a rise in pre-registration nursing and midwifery locations, an increase in the post-registration coaching funds and a global nursing recruitment marketing campaign.

The coaching funds for pre-registration nursing had been lowered by the Division of Well being, falling from an annual common of £30.1m from 2008-9 to 2010-11, to £28.8m between 2011-12 and 2016-17.

That meant fewer nursing coaching locations have been commissioned in contrast with earlier years.

However demand for care was persevering with to rise, which has had long-term implications and contributed to a reliance on costly momentary staffing options.

“At a time when the main focus ought to have been on rising the nursing and midwifery workforce, short-term financial savings have been as an alternative pursued,” mentioned Mr Donnelly.

“Considerably lowering the quantity of coaching locations over a prolonged interval has left the HSC and impartial care sectors with an inadequate staffing pool to deal with the rising demand for care.”

‘Not worth for cash’

Mr Donnelly accepted that workforce planning is “a difficult space to handle, significantly given the rising calls for, restricted assets and intense international competitors for employees going through the well being service”.

Nonetheless, he mentioned short-term selections taken at a strategic stage have meant that “overcoming these critical challenges will take even longer”.

“The reliance on momentary nurses, significantly company workers, has not solely resulted in hovering prices, it can also compromise the standard and security of affected person care as workers are deployed in much less acquainted medical settings.

“It’s clear that this doesn’t characterize worth for cash.”

The report finds that expenditure on momentary workers, from each inside banks and exterior businesses, has risen from £14.6m in 2006-07 to £115m in 2018-19. That is a rise of virtually 800%.

In 2018/19, three trusts paid as much as £1,700 for company nurse cowl for a single financial institution vacation shift.

The age profile of HSC nurses and midwives has elevated during the last decade, with 14% of nurses and 22% of midwives now aged 55 or over.

This, the auditor common mentioned, might heighten the workforce points confronted by the Division of Well being and trusts.

In 2018, the division printed the 2026 Strategy, a workforce plan for the HSC sector.

It acknowledged the necessity to handle excessive illness absence, rising momentary workers prices, excessive emptiness charges, lack of readability on configuration by 2026 and the potential have an effect on of Brexit on workforce provide.

The NIAO report mentioned the implementation of some of the technique’s 24 actions is already not on time and reaching its aims will “show very difficult”.

The report was accomplished earlier than the outbreak of Covid-19, however was not printed till now “to make sure that audit work didn’t disrupt the efforts of severely challenged public our bodies coping with extraordinarily difficult circumstances”.

The Division of Well being mentioned nursing coaching numbers had been elevated and that it accepts that rising expenditure on momentary staffing is unsustainable.

It mentioned half of the reply is to remodel how companies are offered.