STAFF morale in A&E at Taunton’s Musgrove Park Hospital has plummeted because agency nurses get paid in one hour what permanent employees earn in eight hours, it is claimed this week.

A nurse, who asked to remain anonymous, said some nursing staff on about £12 an hour resent working with ‘outsiders’ earning £93 an hour.

“We’d be happy to work extra shifts for more pay, but they still use agency nurses,” said the nurse.

“If they paid us more, they’d get staff who work here, know the protocols and procedures and know how the department runs.

“Sometimes we get agency staff who don’t know much of the stuff we do, yet they’re getting paid a lot more.

“I have no hostility towards them because everyone’s doing a job, but often agency staff tell me they get a bad feeling from other staff because they’re doing less work for more money.

“One agency nurse was sent home once because they were so incapable it was dangerous to have them here.”

The nurse spoke out after the County Gazette reported last week that Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Musgrove, spent more than £2.7million employing agency staff in the first six months of the year.

The unnamed nurse said the average A&E nurse earns around £12 an hour for three 12½-hour shifts a week, although they can receive £200 extra for further shifts to cover for sickness, vacant posts or holidays.

The nurse added: “That’s a fraction of what agency staff get. It’s a long-running argument and has caused dreadful morale.

“It’s no wonder some staff leave and join an agency. In one shift they’ll take home much more than when they worked here.”

Hayley Peters, acting director of nursing and governance, said Musgrove had been working on attracting and keeping nurses from the UK and overseas since it started to see the impact of a national shortage of nurses last year.

She added: “Recruiting to vacancies can take some time and we’ve worked hard over the past year to be flexible in the way we draw up our nursing rotas to ensure patient safety and good patient experience.

“We use many different approaches, and these include at times the offer of an additional payment. This is welcomed by our nursing colleagues.

“We use agency staff when nurses aren’t available from our bank staff.

“We work closely with the agencies we use to ensure the nurses we use are highly-qualified and competent and they’re all provided with an information pack to ensure they understand our ways of working. Agency staff are valued members of our teams.

“Where there are concerns raised about any member of staff, whether it be one of our nurses or an agency nurse, we’d investigate and take any follow-up action necessary.”