A CASH crisis has forced one of North Yorkshire's health trusts to stop using nursing staff from banks or agencies for the next four months.
Members of Scarborough and North-East Yorkshire NHS Trust, which is responsible for hospitals at Malton, Scarborough, Whitby and Bridlington, have been told by director of nursing Marian Pearson that the move is expected to save £100,000 a month.
He said: "Many of our wards and departments have been reliant on extra staff and clearly action must be taken to ensure that wards are safely covered by nursing staff.
"With immediate effect, all senior nurses will be allocated to work some clinical shifts each week."
Meanwhile, the number of complaints by patients and the public health watchdog, Pals, increased in the past three months to 243, compared to 163 in the same period last year.
* Spending on medicines in the trust's hospitals was £188,000 up on the same period last year. Chief pharmacist Jeremy Proctor said biggest rises were in chemotherapy, dermatology and orthopaedic treatments.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article