The Department of Health hopes to reduce the use of and expenditure on medical and dental locums significantly.
Following the introduction of the nursing, midwifery and support workers framework in May 2023, Northern Ireland has launched a new agency framework for medical and dental locum staff.
Workforce stabilisation is the core purpose of the work being taken forward across health and social care to reduce the use of and expenditure on medical and dental locums, the Department of Health said. This will bring with it significant additional benefits in terms of improved governance and quality of care, financial sustainability, increased morale in teams and improvements in operational performance, it added.
It went on to say that the first actions of the Regional Agency Reduction Implementation Group (ARIG) naturally focused on the use of nursing and midwifery agency staffing, as this was by far the largest area of expenditure.
In addition to a new agency nursing and midwifery framework, the cessation of the use of off-contract agency for that professional group, further investment in and recruitment of the core health and social care nursing/midwifery workforce and ongoing work to reform and modernise the health and social care nursing bank, has seen total spend for registered nurses and midwives reduce by 22.3% between 2022/23 and 2024/25 and the near total elimination of off-contract agency use.
“Similar to the approach for the Registered Nursing, Midwifery and Support Workers Framework, a price cap has been introduced for the first time into the Medical and Dental framework. This should enable Trusts to secure better value and reduce locum spend. It is anticipated that it will also support stabilisation of the medical workforce through some doctors taking up substantive posts with Trusts,” explained health minister Mike Nesbitt.
