THOUSANDS of nurses in Scotland's hospitals are being forced to take on second jobs to supplement their NHS wages, a Scotsman investigation has found.
Hundreds of cash-strapped ward staff are moonlighting in shops and bars and many more have signed up for temporary work through the NHS nurse bank agency or taken on extra roles within the health board to make ends meet.
Last night, campaigners w
arned patients could be put at risk by overworked staff, while union leaders demanded improvements in pay and conditions.
Patient representatives predicted the overstretch would get worse as workers struggled against the effects of the credit crunch.
The Scotsman has learned that 332 nurses working in Grampian, Greater Glasgow and Clyde and the Borders health boards have second jobs outwith the authority.
However, these are the only health boards able to provide the information under Freedom of Information legislation. The figure for the whole of Scotland is likely to be about three times higher.
This suggests about 1,000 nurses have taken on external jobs, with health chiefs unaware of the extent of the issue.
Another 4,000 nurses in those boards able to provide figures have second posts within the authority or take extra work through the nurse bank.
Bridget Hunter, lead officer for nursing with Unison Scotland union, said: "It's dreadful that this is how dire things are.
They must be exhausted.
"If you are a patient, you don't want a nurse falling asleep when she's doing a procedure on you, or potentially making a mistake because she is so tired."
Margaret Watt, chairwoman of the Patients Association Scotland, warned the migration to secondary employment was increasing as staff, most of whom earned around £20,000 a year, suffered the effects of the credit crunch.
"We know it is on the increase because the way the economy is going, people can't make ends meet," she said.
"No-one could give their full attention to two full jobs. If you could, you would be superhuman.
"We need these people to give full attention to the NHS and NHS patients. If they have to get another job, they are splitting themselves in two.
"
In Grampian, which provided the most comprehensive breakdown, 241 nurses had registered secondary employment.
Of these, 14 were working in hospitality, 19 in retail, 21 for charities and 23 for one of the region's local authorities.
In Greater Glasgow and Clyde, 69 nurses had transferred their skills to second jobs in healthcare, while 57 worked in other sectors and three in pubs.
NHS Lanarkshire and NHS Forth Valley did not record second jobs, and while NHS Dumfries and Galloway did, it did not know the nature of the positions.
NHS Highland said the information would be recorded where staff declared it, but it would not be easily accessible, putting it outwith the Freedom of Information Act. However, a spokesman said: "Where nurses declare an intention to take up a second job, their manager will take into account the need to provide a safe service to patients before agreeing to it.
"In addition, nurses are bound by their professional code of conduct, which says they must act quickly to protect patients and clients from risk if they believe they or a colleague may not be fit to practise."
NHS Fife said line managers would know about employment outside the board but there was no requirement to record the information. It had 1,053 nurses who also worked on the nurse bank and 61 who had more than one position within the board.
In NHS Lothian, 97 nurses had second jobs in nursing and 19 nurses with NHS Tayside also worked at Stracathro, the Scottish Regional Treatment Centre.
NHS Orkney had 56 nurses working on the bank but did not record other jobs. In NHS Borders, there were 37 people with second jobs in the health board, 96 on the nursing bank and another 73 with a second job outside the NHS.
Ms Hunter called for an overhaul of the system used to record nurses' second jobs, to monitor the situation and flag up potential problems.
Mrs Watt said the Patients Association would support the union in asking the NHS why staff were being forced to take second jobs.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman insisted patient safety was "of primary concern" to boards, but said nurses also had a "professional duty to ensure that they are fit for work".
BACKGROUNDUNDER the Agenda for Change system, there is no set salary for nurses but posts are assessed using the job evaluation system.
The job weights are then translated into one of nine bands.
In practice, when nurses enter employment, the minimum pay band is Band 5 – currently £20,225 to £26,123.
More specialist nurses or those with supervisory responsibility are Band 6 – between £24,103 and £32,653.
More senior nurses with managerial responsibility can match higher bandings depending on the level of responsibility of their post.
In addition to basic salaries, nurses also receive an enhancement for any unsocial hours, such as night or weekend shifts, which ranges from 30 per cent to 60 per cent.
Overtime is paid at the rate of time-and-a-half for any hours worked beyond the standard 37.5-hour week.
The full article contains 885 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
