by Louise Doyle
THE spending of more than €26 million over a three-year period on agency staff for Letterkenny University Hospital while a HSE recruitment embargo is in place has been branded as “unbelievable”.
Member of Regional Health Forum, West Cllr Gerry McMonagle told the Donegal News that it “beggars belief” that such an amount of money would be used for medical agency staff while at the same time a HSE recruitment freeze is active.
Figures provided by the HSE to this newspaper show €26,637,852 was spent on agency staff between the years of 2020 to 2022.
The figure includes the costs of agency staff relating to Covid-19 cover and staffing for vaccination centres.
The highest spend on medical agency was in 2022, when €10, 324,539 was spent – a rise of 39.6 per cent on agency spend in 2020 when €7,391,308 was spent on agency staff.
A total of €8,922,005 was spent on medical agency in 2021, according to the figures.
Medical staff accounted for €17,007,225 from 2020 to 2022. The highest spend in this category was in 2022, when €6,789,501 was spent.
A total of €4,908,524 was spent on agency health care assistants between the years of 2020 to 2022.
Agency spend on registered nursing staff was highest in 2021, at €1,533,819. A total of €2,889,595 was spent on agency staff in this category from 2020 to 2022.
Agency staff spend on Covid-19 cover from 2020 to 2022 amounted to €4,429,924, while the spend on agency staff at vaccination centres over the same time frame was €1,049, 332.
A HSE spokesperson told the Donegal News data on agency spend in 2023 is not available.
“As a result of the ongoing Fórsa industrial action these figures are not currently being collated and verified.”
Commenting on the figures, Cllr McMonagle said: “It’s unbelievable the amount of money that the HSE spends on agency staff year on year yet introduces a recruitment embargo. Surely it would be more beneficial to the Health Service, and in turn our hard pressed patients, to recruit full time health care workers for our hospitals instead of paying the high costs of buying in Agency Staff. It beggars belief, especially at a time when the HSE has introduced a recruitment embargo.”
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