BROMLEY Hospital will have spent more than £5m in one year on agency nurses making it the 10th biggest spender on agency staff in the capital.
London hospitals agreed to spend on average £800,000 on temporary nursing staff in 2000/2001. But Bromley Hospital has spent £5.8m, which is six times more.
The nursing shortage in Bromley is part of a wider nursing crisis in the capital which has led to hospitals relying on private nursing agencies, according to Liberal Democrat research last week.
Now management at Bromley Hospitals NHS Trust says it hopes the recruitment of 48 Filipino nurses this year will help to reduce that figure next year.
And health pressure group, London Health Emergency, says the amount of money being spent on agency staff is "extortionate".
A Bromley Hospital spokesman said: "In line with the majority of other trusts in London, Bromley Hospitals Trust is feeling the effect of the lack of available trained and is having to use agency nurses to cover vacancies in order to maintain safe levels of care within the hospitals.
"Agency nursing is expensive and during the 12 months to the end of March 2001, the trust had spent £5.8m on agency nurses.
"The trust is taking this matter very seriously and has a number of plans in place to fill key vacancies.
She added: "We have recently completed a recruitment campaign for nursing, midwifery and health care assistants.
"This, coupled with the successful recruitment of 45 Filipino nurses during the year, should help reduce the amount we spend on agency staff in the future."
But John Lister, who works for London Health Emergency, believes the Department of Health should be "paying its own staff more" to attract more people to the profession instead of spending money on agency staff.
He said: "The amount of money being spent on agency staff is extortionate and the Department of Health's in-house agency has taken a painfully long time to be set up."
A spokesman for the Department of Health said it was taking nursing shortages seriously and is in the process of setting up an in-house NHS agency to recruit staff so it won't have to rely on private agencies.
November 23, 2001 12:10
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