HOSPITALS are spending millions of pounds on expensive agency nurses to cover shifts because of a shortage of staff.

Increased pressures and low pay have led to many nurses leaving the profession and not enough new recruits are coming through to fill gaps. This is having a knock-on effect on hospitals as they struggle to cover shifts.

Agency workers are drafted in at critical times, such as peaks in A&E use over bank holidays and staff sickness.

A Freedom of Information request by The Argus reveals the county’s three main hospital trusts have spent more than £11m since April last year, compared to £8.8m over the same period two years ago.

Bosses have been forced to recruit staff from abroad to help fill vacancies, with recent visits to Spain, Italy and Portugal and another planned for the Philippines.

However they are continuing to rely on agency workers to make sure there are enough staff.

Changes brought about following the Mid-Staffordshire hospital scandal and subsequent Francis Report means hospitals are boosting the number of nurses they need.

Unison regional organiser for Sussex, Caroline Fife, said: “Rent and the cost of property is very high in Sussex. Some NHS staff get a second job working for an agency to make ends meet.

“Trusts across Sussex are having difficulty recruiting and retaining staff due to pay and the high cost area. They try to employ their own staff on the bank as a preference.

“The staff who work for an agency get a higher rate of pay but they do not get the other benefits that NHS staff receive.

“There are risks of using high levels of agency staff because they may be lacking knowledge of the area they are working in.”

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust has spent £4.7m on agency staff since April, Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Trust forked out £3.4m and East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has spent almost £3m.

Western Sussex Hospitals director of nursing, Amanda Parker, said: “In recent years we have significantly increased the number of nurses on our wards and, despite a national shortfall of 20,000 trained nurses, we do everything we can to attract the best talent to work in our hospitals.

“To ensure our patients continue to receive the highest standards of care at all times, when necessary, the trust makes use of agency nurses.”

Agencies generally pay hourly rates of between £25 and £40 to nursing staff and charge trusts a commission whereas the average salary for a nurse employed by an NHS trust is between £90 and £100 a day.

Up to £1,500 a shift

The Argus revealed earlier this month that a hospital accident and emergency doctor was paid £1,500 to cover a ten-hour shift and Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals and East Sussex Healthcare paid £1,200 for an eight-hour shift in the rheumatology department.

The county’s three main hospital trusts spent more than £14.3 million employing locum doctors to cover shifts between April and the end of January this year.