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Nurse recruitment freeze at major trust as it battles to cut debt

Imperial NHS trust in London – where spending in agency and bank staff topped £89 million in 2022 admits ban on filling nurse vacancies is unsustainable
Sign for Charing Cross Hospital in London, one of the hospitals run by the Imperial trust

Imperial NHS trust in London – where spending in agency and bank staff topped £89 million in 2022 admits ban on filling nurse vacancies is unsustainable

Sign for Charing Cross Hospital in London, one of the hospitals run by the Imperial trust
Imperial runs large hospitals in west London Picture: Alamy

A major London trust has announced a blanket recruitment freeze as it struggles to take control of its budget deficit, despite dozens of nursing vacancies, Nursing Standard can exclusively reveal.

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, which runs Hammersmith, Charing Cross and St Mary’s hospitals, emailed staff to inform them all recruitment is suspended for the whole of June after April accounts showed it was ‘operating significantly beyond its means’ with a £10.4 million deficit.

In the memo, seen by Nursing Standard, bosses said they did not expect requests for agency and bank staff to increase, adding spending on any new requests must be co-ordinated at a ‘divisional level’, with rates monitored weekly.

They said financial and operational performance at the trust – one of the largest in England – was ‘below plan’.

‘Blanket recruitment freeze not a suitable long-term response’

The trust’s website had been advertising 127 roles, including 54 nursing and midwifery jobs in services including critical care and specialist respiratory. These vacancies are now frozen until further notice.

The memo, dated 1 June, says the trust was taking immediate action to ‘prevent our position from worsening while we get remedial plans in place. This means we will not progress any new recruitment requests other than in exceptional circumstances.’

It added that planned interviews or posts that have just been filled would be unaffected.

‘A blanket vacancy freeze is clearly not a suitable long-term response to our situation – it is a way to pause and focus on more sustainable responses,’ the memo states.

Trust’s nurse vacancy rates

There were 40,096 nursing vacancies in England at the end of March 2023, a rate of 9.9%, according to NHS Digital. In London alone, the figure was 9,736.

Board papers from May 2022 show Imperial’s overall staff vacancy rate was 13.4%, with unfilled nursing and midwifery roles running at 12%. Band 5 nursing vacancies were higher, at 14.8%. Spending on temporary staff during 2021/22 was £89.08 million – £63.75 million went on bank staff and £25.33 million on agency staff.

Imperial trust chief executive Tim Orchard says in the memo: ‘I know how hard everyone is working and the challenges you’re facing, but we have to focus our efforts where we can achieve the most for our patients and colleagues. This isn’t about reducing quality or caring for fewer patients – we have expanded our workforce significantly over the past few years and it’s everyone’s job to make the very best use of that time and expertise.’

The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) annual registration data report, published last month, warned of a pattern of staff retention issues, with nurses leaving the profession early due to work pressures, stress and burnout.

The trust has been contacted for comment.


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