HCL Nursing Managing Director Helen
Rudanec has spoken out against recent articles in The
Daily Mail and The
Telegraph, and states agency staff are an
invaluable resource to the NHS, flexing with trusts to accommodate annual
leave, training, sickness and absence and provide flexible staffing solutions
for vacant posts.
“It’s almost too easy to make agency
staff the fall guy in the current resource squeeze. Hospitals are trying
desperately to operate at their most efficient level while trying to meet and
maintain high levels of service. Stress levels of permanent staff are at an all
time high, and cuts are contributing to dangerously low staffing levels and
skill shortages, absolutely.” Ms Rudanec says.
“As a business, we are constantly
investing in our consultants and candidates to maintain the highest levels of
customer service, compliance and in-depth quality management. We promote a
culture of excellence, transparency and compliance. Every one of our candidates
is registered, qualified, CRB checked as a minimum requirement, and this costs
the agency a great deal in time and money. There is a long list of pre-screening checks and
assessments most agencies working with the NHS carry out on all its agency
workers prior to working with a client hospital” She said.
The modern workforce in the UK has
changed significantly, with latest figures from the Recruitment &
Employment Confederation (REC) showing the UK has the highest number of
temporary workers in Europe. With over 1.3 million temps working here in the
UK, that’s over 5% of the UK workforce and growing.
“Working through an agency
as a healthcare professional holds its own challenges and is not for the faint
hearted. Our healthcare professionals are consummate professionals with the
ability to hit the ground running and cope in any given situation. They
must have the ability to adapt to new environments and must have the experience
to cope and operate as part of the team. ”
“We work in partnership with trusts to
keep departments at a safe level of staffing
and to plan when flexible staff will be needed. It’s all about working smarter,
so the emphasis falls on the importance of organisation and planning, which, as
an agency, is our specialty.”
“Yes there are agencies in
our market place who charge clients extortionate rates for nurses. These
work outside of the various NHS contracts and they end up paying far more to
the nurses than contracted agencies. Not all nursing agencies operate
this way. HCL along with many other agencies offer a fair salary to our workers
and a competitive charge to our clients. We work on a longer term objective
and work in partnership with our clients to assist in their daily management of
staffing. Most of the stories regarding agency nurses in the press are
all around these high charging off contract agencies and this puts the wrong
light on us all.”
Ms Rudanec also pointed out HCL
operated on various healthcare framework agreements, designed to standardise
healthcare costs, such as Government Procurement Service (GPS) and the London
Procurement Programme (LPP).
