Trust agrees to invest £2.6 million in keeping wards safely staffed
Posted 23 November 2021 - 10:00
Following review, United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust decides to fund recruitment of more nurses and support staff
An East Midlands trust is to spend £2.6 million expanding its nursing workforce to keep hospital wards safely staffed.
The investment will pay for an additional 25 full-time equivalent nurses and midwives at United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust (ULHT). It will also fund an extra 57 healthcare support workers at the trust.
Director of nursing Karen Dunderdale said the funding would also be used to retain nurses by providing improved support in the workplace.
‘This is about ensuring that our nursing and midwifery establishments and shift arrangements deliver the best possible quality of care to our patients, while making sure we use our resources efficiently,’ Dr Dunderdale said.
‘We know that having permanent staffing in place, rather than using lots of agency staff, is best for patients and for the trust. It just makes sense.’
Recruitment of more nurses may help reduce amount the trust spends on agency staff
From July to August this year the trust undertook a nurse establishment review of its workforce across all wards of its four hospitals, looking at how many registered nurses, midwives and healthcare support workers were employed on each.
It found that despite ‘significant’ agency spend in August, the wards were short of 42 full-time registered nurses. To counter this, the review recommended increased spend on nursing recruitment. The additional funding was approved at a board meeting on 2 November.
It is hoped the recruitment of more nurses will also help reduce the amount the trust spends on agency staff to fill gaps when wards are understaffed.
Dr Dunderdale added: ‘We carried out our establishment review so we could be assured that the nursing and midwifery staffing levels across our wards continue to be appropriate and sufficient, in light of the recent pandemic.’
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