Overtime bill for nurses to top 36m

OVERTIME payments to nurses are set to top 36 million euro this year as staff shortages continue to hit health services.

Over 3 million euro was paid out by the country’s 10 health boards to nurses across all grades in the first month of 2002. Figures supplied by the Health Service Employers Agency (HSEA) show that nurses worked a total of 4,521 hours overtime each day during the month of January.

This equates with 31,650 hours per week or 812 full-time nurses.