Use of bank shifts at the Hospital

1240/5(8099)

WRITTEN QUESTION TO THE MINISTER FOR HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICES BY DEPUTY G.P. SOUTHERN OF ST. HELIER

ANSWER TO BE TABLED ON TUESDAY 4th FEBRUARY 2014

Question

Will the Minister explain to members how bank shifts, described by the Chief Minister as "standard and normal methodology" operate to provide additional hours of work for nurses and other health workers in the hospital?

Will she state what rates are paid for such shifts, whether there are cost savings made through this practice; whether there are limits placed on the number of hours, consecutively or otherwise, that an individual can do and what number of hours in total and as a proportion of the total requirement for full service provision are being met by such bank shifts?

Answer

Operation of Bank Shifts – Nurses, Midwives and Healthcare Assistants in the Hospital

• Bank shifts are booked to cover sudden or planned absence of staff or to cover a sudden increase in demand – such as the need to provide one to one care.
• Staff registered on the nurse bank do so from choice, as either HSSD bank staff only or from our existing registered or non registered workforce
• Bank staff respond to immediate and/or predicted staffing shortfalls where a ward area requires minimum safe staffing levels to operate or where a service would be depleted in the absence of staff.
• Any member of staff registered on the nurse bank is responsible for making the nurse bank office aware of their availability for shifts at any time.
• Bank staff may be contacted hours or days before they are required to cover a shift.
• A minimum of 12 hours notice is given to any member of staff booked, where the shift is subsequently cancelled, unless they choose to accept cancellation of shift without notice.

Bank Staff Rates of Pay – Nurses and Midwives and Healthcare Assistants

• Bank staff are employed on zero hours contracts at Grade 1 Health Care Assistant or Grade 4 Staff Nurse rates of pay, this is the same as permanent staff unless a specific managerial or specialist nurse cover is required at Grades 5 or 6.

Grade 4 Staff Nurse Bank £18.68 - £20.64 per hour Grade 1 Health Care Assistant Bank £12.10 - £13.14 per hour

• Entitlement for additional payments for working out of hours, nights weekends or bank holidays apply the same as the permanent contracted nursing and midwifery workforce.
• HSSD Bank staff are entitled to 0.8% holiday pay which is applied at time of payment 4- 6 weeks in arrears.
• In relation to cost, the use of bank staff supports cost containment. As previously explained much of the bank staff usage relates to cover for substantive posts for short periods of time or to support a sudden increase in service demand.

Maximum hours of bank staff

• The safe number of hours that any member of staff either bank or contacted hours is approximately 50 hours per week, which correlates with the European Working Time Directive (EWTD). The hours are monitored, with random audits being undertaken as required.
• Staff may be required to undertake some additional hours in exceptional circumstances, where low staffing levels, significant sickness or a major incident would otherwise have a major impact on staff cover. At such time, the requirement for additional hours has to be sanctioned by management.

Total bank hours used as a proportion of budgeted establishment:

2013 : Bank Hours booked to cover 24/7, 365 days of the year across all areas of the hospital, including wards, theatres, clinics etc:  

• an average of Registered Nurse bank hours (to provide cover 24/7 across 365 days of the year) equivalent to 3.40 full time equivalents were recorded as being booked
• an average of Health Care Assistants bank hours (to provide cover 24/7 across 365 days of the year) equivalent to 6.70 full time equivalents were recorded as being booked
• The total equates to 0.88% of the overall combined registered and non registered budgeted workforce