SDLP MLA Mark H Durkan has urged the Department of Health to get a grip on spiralling agency costs crippling a broken system.
A Freedom of Information request revealed that the cost of employing locum health staff has increased substantially over the last 10 years from £68 million in 2012/23 to £320 million in 2021/22.
Notably the agency expenditure since the COVID pandemic has risen by almost £66 million across Northern Ireland which the department has attributed to efforts to provide safe staffing levels.
Said the Foyle MLA: “This is an eye-watering spend on what is essentially a temporary fix to a deepening crisis within the health service.
“Clearly this band-aid approach to the gaping wound of resourcing issues is not only ineffective but also proving extremely expensive.
“Costs for agency and locum staff is increasing substantially year on year in an effort to plug workforce gaps. It’s now a case of not being able to put the genie back in the bottle.
“This situation wasn’t unforeseen. Warning after warning from expert panel reports of stark increases in locum expenditure went unheeded.
“The failure to deliver long overdue transformation within the health service has led us to this juncture.
“Successive Health Ministers have reigned over the slow-motion collapse of the health system following years of neglect.
“Now a dog-tired workforce is doing their best to manage amidst the rubble.
“Agency staff spend is almost five times what it was ten years ago. That’s hundreds of millions of pounds which would be better spent investing in a health workforce and providing a decent liveable wage.
“A £320 million spend on temporary cover for 2021/22, at a time when health staff have been forced to take to the picket lines for fair pay, is mindboggling.
“This isn’t just a question of money, this is the loss of opportunities, job creation and the regeneration of our health system.
“The solutions to this crisis were highlighted long ago, the failure to implement those solutions has resulted in a terminal prognosis for the health service.
“A functioning executive is critical to get at least get handle on this unsustainable and appalling frittering away of funds.”
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