Director of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in Northern Ireland, Rita Devlin, said the rising spend on temporary staff is “neither sustainable nor acceptable for patients or staff”.
She pointed to the fact some of Northern Ireland’s health trusts are “hugely replying” on temporary staff, but admitted “you can’t just turn the tap off because that would impact patient safety”.
Devlin told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme that the level of spending represents a “missed opportunity”.
“The report makes clear that the same funding could employ more than 2,600 full-time nurses,” she said.
“At a time when services are under extreme pressure, this is money that should be invested in building a stable, permanent workforce, not plugging gaps at a far higher cost.”
Devlin added that an over-reliance on agency staff is a “symptom of deeper, long standing issues” and will not be resolved “unless we address the failure to properly plan, recruit and retain nurses”.
A solution she said would be: “increasing training places, improving retention through better pay and working conditions, and making nursing an attractive long-term career”.