HCL plc, the UKís largest specialist health and social care staffing company, said today that the NHS would need to significantly increase its use of flexible staffing if a public sector spending squeeze led to significant job cuts among permanent frontline staff.
HCL was responding to reports that the Department of Health has been advised by consultancy firm McKinsey and Company that the NHS in England would need to slash around 10% of its workforce (equating to 137,000 jobs) if it is to is to achieve its planned 20bn savings by 2014.
However, HCL said today that frontline services would not have to be affected if the NHS were to take a more innovative approach towards workforce management by using a greater proportion of flexible healthcare staff alongside its permanent workforce.
Kate Bleasdale, Executive Vice Chairman of HCL, commented:
ìThis report highlights an important issue. HCL has consistently pointed out that the NHS simply cannot sustain the current level of spending on full time staff.
ìAgency healthcare staff cost the taxpayer far less than full time public sector workers, as they are only paid for the hours that they work and do not receive the hugely expensive pension provisions and other public sector benefits. Of the 54 bn which was spent on paying NHS staff in 2007-8, only 1.8% was spent on clinical agency staff.
ìMore and more of our clients are now recognising that agency staff are an extremely cost-effective option and many NHS Trusts now have a policy of deliberately maintaining an appropriate vacancy factor in their workforce so they can manage staff numbers efficiently to meet the peaks and troughs of demand for clinical services. We have always advised that the optimum vacancy factor should be 10 - 15%.
ìThe fact is that the planned usage of agency staff is integral to NHS workforce management and will become more so as public sector budgetary constraints make themselves felt in the years ahead. Itís time the Government recognised this and made it easier for Trusts to work directly with agencies and get the staff they need to maintain frontline services for patients.î
HCL: NHS staff cuts would require more flexible workers
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