This item was published during the term of a previous administration that ended in April 2007
Listen
Banking on NHS nurses
07/03/2005
Health Boards are to streamline and improve their 'nurse
banks' resulting in reduced reliance on expensive agencies,
and a better service for patients, it was announced
today.
Speaking at the Royal College of Nursing's annual
conference in Glasgow, Health Minister Andy Kerr said that
nurse banks were a valuable resource to aid the recruitment
and retention of nurses and provide flexible employment
opportunities.
Mr Kerr said: "Nurses are vital and we value the work
they do. We need to have a skilled, motivated workforce to
provide the highest standards of patient care.
"When nurses are off sick, or on unexpected leave, we
must make sure that patient care comes first and that the
rest of the nursing team aren't put under more
pressure.
"That's where nurse banks come in. These are a 'bank' of
flexible, skilled NHS employees who are available at short
notice to cover shifts and support patient care.
"Last year agency nursing cost NHSScotland £29.7m. We
need to sort this out so we will rationalise provision and
manage bank and agency nursing more effectively.
"We will make sure that bank nurses are treated as well
as all other employees and seen as the asset they are.
Making this happen will bring down agency nursing costs,
releasing more resources for the NHS."
The report and action plan: Nationally Coordinated Nurse
Bank Arrangements, is available on:
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/health/ncnba-00.asp.
Other initiatives currently underway include a recently
launched campaign to attract 16-25 year olds to choose a
career in health. This is linking with Careers for Health
so that we establish strong links with schools and colleges
for recruitment. We are also working with our higher
education institutions to reduce student attrition.
To support the development of Board Nurse Banks, we are
investing £500,000 per annum for the next 3 years. We
expect this project to be cost neutral in 2-3 years as
savings from agency nursing take effect within the
service. In addition funding is available to develop an IT
infrastructure to support the new arrangements for nurse
banks across Scotland.