30 new staff employed at Derry ED as hospital moves away from agency work

This comes as the Western Trust makes an effort to move away from agency work to cover vacancies in the ED.

Director of Unscheduled Care, Medicine, Cancer and Clinical Services, Geraldine McKay said: “Over the last number of years, we have been consistently using a high volume of agency staff within our emergency departments because of the high turnaround of ED nurses.

“We, as a Trust, agreed that we would work to stabilise the workforce within our emergency departments. We looked at the staffing levels we currently had and how many more it would take within those areas to stabilise, in terms of expertise, seniority and skill mix. That doesn't mean we're at our level yet because whilst we do this, we have other people who leave etc so it's still a work-in-progress but we have made huge progress over the last year.”

Geraldine McKay said the Trust have opted to recruit 30 new nurses for Altnagelvin and 14 for South West Acute. “We have achieved that at this minute in time in terms of new nurses. They've not all started just yet, some are still going through their final checks but it was a very successful piece of work, which was on the back of the Agency Framework,” she said.

The Western Trust will still use agency contracts in the ED when there is a need for them, to cover sickness or gaps in the staff but say they are making an effort to work away from this.

The Trust director added: "This has been an extremely challenging year for all, not only the public attending our services but our staff who work in it day and daily. We have had no reduction in pressure over the summer and autumn period and our staff have worked tirelessly throughout this period to make sure our patients are safe on a daily basis in the midst of all that pressure and challenge. I would like to personally thank all of our staff for what they do every day for the population of the west and for our patients.”