CASH SAVED WITH BANK OF NURSES; Hospitals team up to cut costs.

Byline: HELEN CLARKE

HOSPITALS have teamed up to cut the cost of agency nurses.

Three trusts on Merseyside spend pounds 4m a year filling nursing shortages with agency staff.

Now they have teamed up to provide a flexible bank of temporary staff themselves.

They reckon the move will save them pounds 500,000 a year.

The NHS trusts providing the scheme are Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen hospitals, Aintree hospitals, which runs Fazakerley and Walton, and St Helens and Knowsley hospitals, which runs St Helens and Whiston.

The hospitals already have nursing banks, but hope to save cash by pooling their resources.

Nurses employed through the bank can work at any hospital in the scheme.

Managers say private agencies do not necessarily pay more and they hope to lure new staff with incentives such as NHS pensions and career development opportunities.

They say a benefit of a pooled bank is not having to pay the agency as well as the member of staff.

All three hospitals are trying to recruit more nurses,but say some staff prefer to work on an ad hoc basis.

The new scheme was launched at Fazakerley hospital this week and is the first in Merseyside.

Project manager Dave Evans said: ``There are many significant benefits from a Liverpool/Aintree/St Helens collaborative approach,apart from saving money.

``These include raising standards for temporary staff with standard pre-employment checks for temporary additional staff coming to us through the nurse bank or agency.

``It will also enable us to recruit and retain staff through the increased use of flexible working conditions.''