HSE acknowledge overreliance on agency staff in Mayo University Hospital

A SENIOR HSE official in the west of Ireland has acknowledged there is an overreliance on agency staff in Mayo University Hospital after it was revealed that €7.5 million was spent on agency staff in 2023.

The HSE revealed that €7.5 million was spent in 2023 on agency staff in Mayo University Hospital while acknowledging that had the same staff been employed directly by them it would have cost around €5.4 million.

The figures were revealed at the HSE Regional Health Forum West meeting following a question submitted by Castlebar-based Independent councillor Michael Kilcoyne where he asked what would the cost be to employ staff directly by the HSE compared to recruiting agency staff.

In response to Cllr Kilcoyne's question, Tony Canavan, HSE Regional Executive Officer for the West and North West acknowledged that there was an over reliance on agency staff in the Castlebar hospital.

“To be fair I would be the first to acknowledge we have an overreliance currently on agency staffing and there is no argument about that. We have significant numbers of agency staff on the hospital side in nursing and supporting roles and we also have some on the medical side in terms of doctors as well. We have an active scheme of conversion of those agency staff as part of our recruitment policy so we can make some of those savings you described,” he told the meeting while adding that there will always be a need for agency staff.

“I would say there will always be some agency usage particularly for short term vacancies which arise or are extremely difficult to fill vacancies. We are definitely using more agency than we would be happy with but there will always be a need for some agency use,” he said.

Cllr Kilcoyne who was chairing the meeting said that a huge amount of money was being spent on agency staff and it was not going to the staff.

“Somebody is on a winner and it is certainly not the staff. I suggest it is a very lucrative career to be the supplier of staff to the HSE,” he commented.

Meanwhile, Cllr Kilcoyne also questioned the 'slow' pace to recruit staff to work in the hospital after the meeting heard that just six positions have been filled despite the lifting of the HSE recruitment freeze in mid July.

“You have only filled about six but this was a major announcement by the Government three months ago that the ban had been lifted and everyone was going to get a job in the health service or words to that effect.

“I must have misinterpreted what the government said that the ban was lifted and all positions were going to be filled. I was obviously wrong in the interpretation of what they said,” Cllr Kilcoyne commented.

Ann Cosgrove, Interim CEO of the Saolta University Health Care Group explained that recruitment processes are slow by its nature and the process of filling posts is ongoing.

Mr Canavan added that the lifting of the recruitment freeze did not mean all posts will be filled but it gave the HSE regions responsibility for what posts will be filled.

“In fairness to the government I don't think they said all positions were going to be filled. What they were saying is the decision to fill posts was now left to the regions and that has happened since the middle of July. It doesn't mean we don't follow all good HR practices on recruitment and that takes a bit of time but it also doesn't mean that every post will be filled. It means the decision to fill posts will be taken within the region,” he said.