This story was first published in digitalhealth.net
Trusts struggle to achieve agency nurse spending caps
Last month, regulators Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority issued ‘ceilings’ to trusts concerning the proportion of nursing expenditure they can spend with temporary staffing agencies. The new targets will depend on the trust’s previous expenditure and are due to come into force this month.
The budgets vary from three to 12 per cent. When questioned by HSJ about the new ‘ceiling’ caps, the responses from trusts suggested that those currently spending higher proportions on agency nurses will find it more difficult to meet targets.
One example includes Tameside Hospital Foundation Trust, who have been required to reduce their six - eight per cent nursing expenditure to three per cent by 2018-19.
Chief executive Karen James said: “It’s going to be impossible to achieve a significant reduction in our spend and we can’t achieve the level we are being asked to this year.
“We can make a slight inroad in terms of the ceiling but we’ve been clear we’re not going to be able to achieve it and other trusts are saying similar things.”
In regard to the financial challenge facing the NHS, the chief executive said: “Everyone’s been working towards the safe staffing guidance and this has increased demand for agency nurses. This all could have been predicted.”
In contrast, a spokesman for Bradford District Care FT, said the trust believes it is possible to meet its targets, but added: “This is challenging and requires numerous responses, some at a coordinated national level.”
NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said: “Trusts tell us that while they are doing everything they can to control agency spend, some are finding it difficult to stay within the total agency spend ceiling each trust has been given.
He added: “Faced with a choice of providing safe care or sticking to the limit, trusts are prioritising safe care, as the rules say they should.
“Trusts tell us they are also concerned about the level of bureaucracy these trust level agency spend ceilings involve.”
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