FINNIE CALLS FOR MORE NURSES

Written by Ross Finnie on Tue 26th Jun 2007

FINNIE CALLS FOR MORE NURSES (26.06.07)

Responding to figures released today showing that the use of bank nursing and midwifery staff has increased by 25.8%, Scottish Liberal Democrat Shadow Health Secretary Ross Finnie MSP has called for the Executive to recruit more nurses to reduce dependency on bank nursing staff.

Commenting, Mr Finnie said:

"Liberal Democrats want an additional 2,000 nurses to be recruited and we will press the Executive to consider this.

"Bank nursing is not a cost effective method of staffing the NHS. The Executive must commit to recruiting more nurses to ensure that taxpayers' money is put to the best possible use."

Ends.

Notes to editors:

The use of bank nursing and midwifery staff increased by 25.8% from 2797.1 average WTE for the year ending 31st March 2006 to 3519.0 average WTE for the year ending 31st March 2007.

The cost of employing these staff rose by 13.7% from £69.1 million to £78.5 million over the same period.