ONE FIRM supplying agency staff to the Health Service Executive (HSE) received in excess of €29.2 million in payments last year. New figures show CPL was paid €29.26 million last year – almost double the amount the Dublin-based company received in 2010.
Overall last year, the HSE’s agency costs increased by 15 per cent from €153.3 million to €176.5 million.
However, a new framework agreement put in place last year by the HSE, to ensure better value for money in the cost of agency staff, resulted in the bigger firms enjoying a much larger portion of the payments made. The figures released by the HSE show the top five firms received an aggregate of €105.2 million last year. This compares to €62.4 million received by the same five firms in 2010 – an increase of 68 per cent. The new framework agreement did deliver reductions in the rate of agency staff and consolidated the number of agencies used.
The figures show the €29.2 million received by CPL last year is nearly double the €15.8 million the firm received in 2010.
The HSE confirmed that Nurse on Call Ltd received €26.8 million last year compared to €16.9 million in 2010. The figures also show Global Medics received €22.7 million last year compared to €15 million in 2010.
Locum Express last year received €17.7 million – more than double the €7.7 million it received in 2010.
TTM Healthcare also increased the amount it received last year, with the firm receiving €8.6 million in fees compared to €6.9 million in 2010.
A spokeswoman for the HSE said yesterday: “The HSE has reduced expenditure on agency to date by approximately 8 per cent compared to the same period last year.”
In an attempt to further rein in agency costs, HSE national director Laverne McGuinness wrote to HSE regional directors last month demanding that controls be put in place to achieve “a near zero tolerance” of the use of agency staff. She is demanding that no agency staff are permitted for management and administrative grades and that staff on sick leave must not be automatically replaced by agency staff.
