HSE plans to turn agency workers into contracted employees could “worsen” retention in the health service, an expert in healthcare has said. 

Amid constraints on the health budget, the Government is looking to save money by spending €250 million less on agency staff. 

Instead, as part of the HSE’s National Service Plan, healthcare workers would be offered the chance to become HSE employees.

Speaking on The Pat Kenny Show, Irish Medical Times columnist and retired consultant Dr Chris Luke said he was “sympathetic” to the idea of reducing the use of agency staff - but only in the long-term. 

“To do this sort of urgent pruning in the short-term will cause difficulty with morale,” he said. 

“I think it will even worsen our chronic retention and recruitment processes and it will affect function - I can’t see it not affecting function. 

“Just yesterday, we had 607 people on trolleys.” 

A patient on a trolley in a hospital. Picture by: Josie Elias / Stockimo / Alamy Stock Photo

Dr Luke also said there are a number of issues with using agency staff and recalled his own experience working in a chaotic emergency department. 

“Sometimes [the agency worker] is literally flown in from a city or some other island,” he said. 

“You’re taking an hour or two to induct, to show them where everything is in the midst of all the mayhem that characterises your typical big ED on a Saturday night. 

“So, it’s far from perfect.” 

'You can do fewer days'

Despite this, Dr Luke described the National Service Plan as a “fairly brutal cutback” and said there are a number of reasons why healthcare staff often prefer to work for an agency, rather than for the HSE. 

“The reason why there’s such a reliance on the locum agency is because of the dissatisfaction and the unhappiness of staff with the existing HSE terms and conditions,” he said. 

“What agency work offers is flexibility for people who need to have a portfolio of careers, who have caring responsibilities, long commutes - there’s a big long list of reasons why they opt for agency work. 

“It also tends to be better paid, so you can do fewer days and get on with the rest of your life.” 

In 2023, a report by the Parliamentary Budget Office found that the HSE spent €619 million on agency staff in 2022 - a figure nearly double the €330.5 million it spent in 2018.

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Main image: An operation taking place.