HSE spends €2.6m on agency staff at city public hospitals last year

Galway Bay fm newsroom - Over €2.6 million was spent on agency staff at the city's public hospitals last year.

That's according to figures obtained by Sinn Fein city councillor Mairéad Farrell who says the over-reliance on agency staff is a direct result of the recruitment and retention crisis.

She says the nursing discipline is also suffering with the HSE spending €326,000 on agency nurses in 2017 at GUH.

The Sinn Fein councillor argues spending such a large sum of money on agency and locum staff constitutes a financial waste to the State and other options need to be considered.

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