Locum staff employed at the hospital since 2018 (FOI)

​​​​Request

A

How much money has been spent on locum staff at Jersey Hospital since 2018 to date? Please provide a breakdown by each year in total.

B

Please provide a breakdown, by year, of how many different locums have been brought in in that same period for shifts. 

C

What is the most a locum is paid per hour?

D

What is the most a locum has been paid for a shift since 2018 broken down by year for all clinical professions?​

Response

A

Attachment 1 details the costs associated with agency staff contracted by Health and Community Services (HCS) from 2018 to 2022 (inclusive), including the breakdown of costs for doctors (Medical), nurses and midwives (Nursing), and any other agency bookings (Other). Please note, due to organisational restructure over the period this response relates to, some of the figures will not reconcile to those previously published.

Attachment 1.pdf

For January 2023 to October 2023 (inclusive) the HCS spend on Locum and agency staff is £24,662,704. Finance records for this period do not provide further breakdown of this expenditure by staff type.

B

Locum medical staff:

Attachment 2 shows the number of Locum medical staff engaged per year from 2018 to November 2023:

Attachment.pdf​

All other locum clinical staff (includes nurses, midwives and Allied Health Professionals (AHPs)):

In 2022, there were 163 separate agency staff engagements across nursing, midwifery and allied health professions. This includes any contracts that were carried over from 2021. These figures may include repeat bookings of the same individual.

62 of these agency staff completed their engagement in 2022, with 101 engagements rolling into 2023.

There have been 98 new agency staff engagements in 2023 to date.

Prior to 2022, data on agency staff numbers used is not available centrally at this level. Snapshot data of staff numbers was produced historically for Freedom of Information responses, as linked below:

Nursing Staff Statistics (FOI)

​Cost of Agency Nurses (FOI)

C and D

The contract of Locum services is commercially sensitive and as such, HCS considers that disclosure of 

the cost information requested would likely prejudice the commercial interests of the department, or others. 

Therefore, Article 33 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011 has been applied.

Article applied

Article 33 - Commercial interests

Information is qualified exempt information if –

(a) it constitutes a trade secret; or

(b) its disclosure would, or would be likely to, prejudice the commercial interests of a person (including 

the scheduled public authority holding the information).

Public Interest Test

Article 33 is a qualified exemption and as such, HCS has conducted a prejudice test as required by law. 

When responding to requests of this nature, HCS has to balance the public interest with the impact that disclosing this information would, or would be likely to, have upon the organisation and / or third parties. Whilst it may be in the public interest to understand the costs of contracting external resources, protecting the commercial interests of HCS is an essential component in controlling public finances, which, in itself, is in the public interest.

Locum services need to be contracted and negotiated frequently to meet clinical demand and cover periods of leave or absence of substantive medical staff, as required. Disclosing information relating to contractual service arrangements is likely to prejudice the commercial interests of HCS and others. Additionally, the service contract for Locum provision is currently out for tender, and as such, disclosing Locum rates could prejudice the tender process and have a detrimental effect on contract negotiations.

When considering the application of this exemption, HCS has determined that whilst it is in the public interest to disclose information, this is outweighed by the necessity to limit any impact on its commercial interests in contracting future Locum clinician services and as such, Article 33 has been applied.​​