Nurse shift costs hospital £1,100
William Harvey Hospital
The East Kent Hospitals Trust runs the William Harvey at Ashford
A hospital trust in Kent has paid more than £1,000 for an agency nurse to work a single accident and emergency shift.
East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs A&E departments in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate, paid £1,100 for a 12.5 hour shift on Sunday 20 March.
The rate works out at £90 per hour, but the trust's director of nursing, Elaine Strachan Hall, said it could not get a suitably qualified nurse anywhere else.
She said the trust no longer used the agency which charged £1,100.
The trust also paid £736 for one 11.5 hour shift on Friday 25 March and £585 for a 10.5 hour shift on Sunday 13 February.
Overall last year, the trust spent £2.5m on agency nurses.
Payment to nurses
BBC Radio Kent said the payments were revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request.
It is unclear how much the nurses received from the payments made to the unnamed agency.
Kent & Canterbury Hospital
The Kent & Canterbury is also run by the East Kent Trust
But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the vast majority of agency nurses did not earn anything like £90 per hour.
It said a staff nurse on the same E grade is paid an average of £20,000 a year, or £10 per hour.
MP for Dartford, Dr Howard Stoate, who is a member of the Parliamentary health select committee, said the payment of £1,100 for a shift was outrageous.
He said high fees paid to agencies were damaging to the morale of staff nurses, who deeply resented them.
"These figures represent appalling management and a scandalous waste of money," he said.
Ms Strachan Hall said: "Our patients come first and we will always protect public safety by putting in the staff we need to when we need to.
"It would not have been safe to close an A&E, because there are hundreds of patients coming through on a daily basis."
She said the trust would not pay £1,100 for a shift without exhausting every other possibility first.
But she said she would pay that figure again if it was necessary to ensure patient safety.
But the trust now paid about £12 per hour to its preferred agencies.
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Oh dear - if it goes this way then that 1% NI increase that GBrown introduced and everyone (well almost) cheered so loudly about will need to increase.
William Harvey Hospital
The East Kent Hospitals Trust runs the William Harvey at Ashford
A hospital trust in Kent has paid more than £1,000 for an agency nurse to work a single accident and emergency shift.
East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs A&E departments in Ashford, Canterbury and Margate, paid £1,100 for a 12.5 hour shift on Sunday 20 March.
The rate works out at £90 per hour, but the trust's director of nursing, Elaine Strachan Hall, said it could not get a suitably qualified nurse anywhere else.
She said the trust no longer used the agency which charged £1,100.
The trust also paid £736 for one 11.5 hour shift on Friday 25 March and £585 for a 10.5 hour shift on Sunday 13 February.
Overall last year, the trust spent £2.5m on agency nurses.
Payment to nurses
BBC Radio Kent said the payments were revealed in response to a Freedom of Information request.
It is unclear how much the nurses received from the payments made to the unnamed agency.
Kent & Canterbury Hospital
The Kent & Canterbury is also run by the East Kent Trust
But the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said the vast majority of agency nurses did not earn anything like £90 per hour.
It said a staff nurse on the same E grade is paid an average of £20,000 a year, or £10 per hour.
MP for Dartford, Dr Howard Stoate, who is a member of the Parliamentary health select committee, said the payment of £1,100 for a shift was outrageous.
He said high fees paid to agencies were damaging to the morale of staff nurses, who deeply resented them.
"These figures represent appalling management and a scandalous waste of money," he said.
Ms Strachan Hall said: "Our patients come first and we will always protect public safety by putting in the staff we need to when we need to.
"It would not have been safe to close an A&E, because there are hundreds of patients coming through on a daily basis."
She said the trust would not pay £1,100 for a shift without exhausting every other possibility first.
But she said she would pay that figure again if it was necessary to ensure patient safety.
But the trust now paid about £12 per hour to its preferred agencies.
---------
Oh dear - if it goes this way then that 1% NI increase that GBrown introduced and everyone (well almost) cheered so loudly about will need to increase.
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