HSSD looks overseas in bid to fill vacancies
OVERSEAS recruitment drives are key to helping plug Health and Social Services' staffing needs and driving agency staff costs down, the department has said, as it faces an estimated 100 vacancies across all nursing.
Anita Gaudion, HSSD HR partner, said the department was currently in the Philippines looking to recruit a cohort of 20 nurses to work in acute services at the PEH, under its 2015 planned recruitment campaign, which has included local nurses and UK recruitment. However, while in the UK health secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a crackdown on the use of agency staff in the NHS amid concerns over spiralling costs,
Ms Gaudion, pictured, said agency staff in Guernsey accounted for just 50 of 1,100 nurse and midwife posts locally.
She said managers would never automatically opt for agency staff to fill posts and would first consider bank staff – available for temporary cover – or reconfiguring the staff team.
Another key way to drive down agency costs, said Ms Gaudion, was to 'have a proactive recruitment campaign and recruit permanent positions as quickly as possible'.
