Agency Nurses being furloughed...**Title edited by MNHQ**

[Idolikeanicepieceofcake]

My OH and I work in healthcare. He is a critical care nurse (working on bank and agency as we need one of us to have flexible working) and yet he was told last week that he is being furloughed as there is no work. My job is continuing as normal, and technically he doesn't need to work as I earn enough to support the family, but doesn't it seem crazy that the hospitals don't need extra staff at all? I have noticed that there are oodles of staff working in ITU at the moment, who have presumably been 'up-skilled' from other departments, but I am still surprised they don't need highly-trained and experienced nurses to be supporting them/looking after the most unwell patients. My OH has volunteered to go and work away in other hospitals, but so far they all have enough staff. On one hand I am proud that the NHS is managing this pandemic so well that they don't need to get extra staff in, but on the other I'm wondering whether we massively overestimated how awful COVID-19 was going to be on the health service. Have any other nurses been furloughed?

Doctors on long term locum contracts (4-6months) have been terminated in our trust.

Maybe join nhs bank nhs cant afford private agencies. I know alot of private agencies charge 50 quid plus per hour for a and e and itu nurses and the nurse gets 30 ish

I responded to the emergency call up for Nurses that had recently left the register. It seemed all so urgent at first but after signing up I've never heard another thing form them. Was meant to receive a call to sign up and sort out DBS etc and was never contacted. I can only assume we are not needed.

“ have been terminated”

I know the nhs have little to do at the mo but that seems a bit drastic 😂

I think the nhs was to an extent underestimated. We work in high pressured jobs, we can handle more then we are being given, every winter we face horrendous pressures every single day that almost break us! Now it’s so quiet we don’t know what to do with ourselves at work, the Covid wards are busy but not full. I am glad they are going to open certain departments so patients can get the treatment they need. I’m worried we’ll see more deaths from other diseases/illness then last year due to services being so Covid focused!

What a pile of shite this thread is , sounds like the OP’s DH wants to have their cake and eat it.

This is not an NHS bashing thread. We are clearly doing very well indeed if we don't need agency staff. I work for the NHS, but I am not a nurse. We are employing locum doctors every day, but apparently not nursing staff.
I believe that agency workers are able to be furloughed because they are paid through an umbrella company for PAYE and NI, which is a LTD company.

I am a retired nurse and did bank shifts after officials retiring from my permanent post.It is right that bank/agency staff are on zero hours I only got paid when there was work, no work no pay.
My DS works for an agency,(not in health care) and does zero hours. He has had no work since lockdown began as his job is van driving delivering supplies etc.As firms went into lockdown they obviously were not needing supplies so no work for delivery drivers.He started getting work again yesterday delivering essential supplies to NHS, but very reduced hours.
I was considering applying to go back to nursing during this crisis, but unfortunately I have developed a medical condition which puts me in the vulnerable person category so had to forget it.

I didn’t think it was legal to furlough someone who is funded with public money?

@VioletCharlotte agencies can furlough staff.

@Rhayader- Many agency nurses also work for private hospitals, hospices, schools and clinics, its not ALL NHS work.

NURSES ARE NOT BEING FURLOUGHED
Exactly -very misleading scaremongering title OP

Yes this is bullshit.

I can't understand why people refuse to accept some wards are very quiet due to the current rules. Not all care workers care for coronavirus patients surely.

Nothing unusual for being furloughed if that save nhs money when staff are not needed.

@Elouera

Point taken, but a lot of schools, clinics, hospices etc would still be funded by the public purse!

We seem to have decided to kill people at home or in care homes by ensuring there is no GP coverage, 111 does not answer the phone and ambulances can take 9 hours to turn up and even then will not take you in unless your lips are blue or you can only say two words as long as as the NHS wards are kept empty that is all that matters. So at least we now know - we are not all in this together and when the NHS is needed it is not there for us so next year as well as the massive extra taxes we will all have to pay perhaps we can look at major reform of the NHS.

We bow down and clap to a new God of the NHS and pretend it is wonderful like North Koreans being shown an empty hospital with no patients which is there for show.

Bingo!!!
😂😂😂😂

NHS Trusts are redeploying their own staff and have less happening, they aren’t going to pay agency costs on top of that.

This is not about whether some wards are quiet, this is about how a bank nurse can not be furloughed.

Can I say bank staff not paid more than nhs staff.

Not only are nurses NOT being furloughed, nurses or midwives who are vulnerable due to age or pre existing conditions may take authorised leave but it is unpaid.

"I believe that agency workers are able to be furloughed because they are paid through an umbrella company for PAYE and NI, which is a LTD company."

Agency workers in general can be furloughed.

DP is a nurse, he's being sent home some days (using up annual leave or having to "owe" hours) as it's so quiet. He is in an outpatient setting that is still running and it's very, very quiet although starting to pick back up now.

Pressed send too soon. There just isn't any bank shifts, it's not anyone being furloughed, it's just that there isn't enough work for the normal staff so they won't book any bank staff.

So the agency is putting him on furlough, not the NHS? Does the majority of his income come from internal bank or agency? That will make a big difference to the furlough payment. Internal bank won't furlough, he just won't be given any shifts, frankly I'm surprised an agency would furlough as well but they technically can.