An outbreak of a highly infectious
virus forced a hospital to
spend more than £1 million on
temporary staff in just a month.
Worthing Hospital had to deal with
dozens of cases of the norovirus, which
causes sickness and diarrhoea, after
patients and staff were struck down.
Many nurses and midwives had to
take time off to recover and the hospital
had to bring in expensive agency
workers to provide cover.
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At one stage five wards were closed
to new admissions while the hospital's
infection control team worked to contain
the outbreak.
Worthing and Southlands Hospitals
NHS Trust has been left with a bill of
£1.12 million for the temporary staff
used in December.
This was more than £250,000 higher
than the £760,000 for November.
Trust director of finance David
Dumigan told a trust board meeting:
"December was a difficult month, in
part because of the norovirus. This led
to us breaching the £1 million mark
and was the highest monthly figure we
have experienced for a long time.
"The norovirus did not just affect
patients, it affected staff as well, which
meant there was an increased demand
for temporary staff."
Temporary workers are employed
for a range of reasons, including sickness,
vacancies or holiday cover.
Mr Dumigan said the impact of the
unexpected extra costs had left the
trust facing an overspend of £95,000 at
the end of the financial year.
Trusts are required by the Government
to break even every year, unless
there are exceptional circumstances.
Mr Dumigan said work had already
started on reducing the number of temporary
staff without compromising the
safety of patients.
Managers and staff in the hospital's
departments were also looking at ways
to improve efficiency and costs.
Trust chairman Tom Robson said:
"We cannot end up with a deficit this
year. We have been progressing well so
far but now we are coming into the
final few months and a problem has
emerged. There can be no excuses."
The trust has an annual budget of
more than £140 million. It was given
£337,000 from the Government last year
to help it tackle infections such as
MRSA and clostridium difficile (C diff).
The money is being used on several
projects, including a hospital cleaning
system that uses special positively
charged microfibres to attract dust.
The system has been demonstrated
to reduce germs compared with conventional
cleaning methods.
The trust has also been carrying out
a deep clean of all its wards and stepping
up its campaign to encourage all
staff and visitors on wards to use the
hand gels provided to stop the potential
spread of infection.
The norovirus is not generally
regarded as a hospital-acquired infection
like MRSA but if a patient brings
it in then it can quickly spread.
Wards where an outbreak has developed
are closed to new admissions so
cases can be restricted. Visitors who
have had the norovirus are also asked
not to come in unless they have been
symptom-free for 48 hours.
East Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust,
which runs Eastbourne District General
Hospital and the Conquest Hospital
in St Leonards, had an outbreak of
sickness and diarrhoea cases in January
but the impact in terms of the cost
on staff is not yet known.
Brighton and Sussex University
Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs the
Royal Sussex County Hospital in
Brighton and the Princess Royal Hospital
in Haywards Heath, had to close
wards towards the end of last year
because of the norovirus but said it did
not have any noticeable impact on its
temporary staffing costs.
John Joseph, one of the managers at
Choice Nursing Agency in Montague
Place, Worthing, said: "Most nurses
cannot work with agencies full-time
because there isn't the work.
"They are usually employed by the
NHS but also do shifts with agencies in
their annual leave or on their days off
to subsidise their income.
"Some agencies offer high pay rates
but they are less likely to get contracts
because they are not cost-effective."
Another nursing agency manager
said his company offered about the
same pay rates as the NHS to compete
for contracts.
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