HSE spend on agency nurses continued to rise in 2012

The provision of agency workers to the HSE continues to be a bonanza for a select number of firms, new figures show.

According to figures provided by the HSE, one agency firm, Nurse On Call, nearly doubled its revenues from the HSE last year from €22.7 million to €43.1 million.

Nurse on Call is the sole supplier of agency nurses to all HSE hospitals and to HSE-funded hospitals – including HSE home-care – for the HSE regions of Dublin North East, Dublin Mid-Leinster, HSE South and HSE Midlands.

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The Dublin-based firm received the second highest amount last year, narrowly behind the publicly quoted CPL that recorded €43.8 million in fees from the HSE last year, a 48 per cent increase on the €29.2 million received in 2011.

Overall, the HSE’s agency spend across clinical/non-clinical and other patient services fell 7 per cent last year from €176.5 million to €164.7 million. The HSE says while it achieved a 30 per cent reduction in costs for agency doctors, 17 per cent more was spent on agency nurses.

The figures released by the HSE show that the five firms paid the most saw their share of the business increase last year to €123 million, a 17 per cent increase on the €105 million received by the five firms in 2011.

Global Medics last year received €17.2 million, down marginally on the €17.7 million received in 2011.

The other two top-paid firms saw sharp drops in monies from the HSE last year: payments to Locum Express dropped by 46.5 per cent from €26.8 million to €14.3 million, with payments to TTM Healthcare down 45 per cent from €8.6 million to €4.7 million.