Hard up Harrogate hospital staff sell back 2,000 days off in six months

Staff at Harrogate District Hospital sold back almost 2,000 days off that they were entitled to in just six months, figures reveal.

Harrogate & District NHS Foundation Trust (HDFT), which runs the hospital, introduced a policy last year where staff could ‘sell’ time off they had accrued back to the trust in order to receive extra money in their pay packets.

It was hoped the move would ease the financial burden that many staff have been under throughout winter as the cost-of-living crisis deepened.

At the time, chief executive Jonathan Coulter even said the finances of some people working for the trust was putting them under more stress than the benefit of having a holiday.

The policy, which has now closed, was capped at a maximum of five days off sold per employee.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service sent a freedom of information request to HDFT, which employs around 3,500 people, asking how many staff had taken the trust up on its offer.

The figures show that between September 2022 and March 2023, 492 employees sold back 14,480 hours.

If this was divided into seven-and-a-half hour shifts, this equates to around 1,800 individual days off sold.

Since the policy was introduced in September, members of health unions have gone on strike over low pay, which they argue is compromising patient safety and leading to an exodus of trained professionals from the NHS.

Ben Kirkham, GMB Union regional organiser, said the move by HDFT to let staff sell days off is exacerbating staff burnout and sickness. He added: “The NHS is suffering from chronic underfunding and a major crisis in staffing, resulting in huge appointment and operation back logs. “For both staff and patients its vital that the NHS is funded properly and that means urgent investment.”

A Royal College of Nursing spokesperson said:

“RCN members are caught between twin crises. The cost-of-living crisis in which selling annual leave is one method of making ends meet and the staffing crisis. Nursing staff are already required to work significant levels of unpaid overtime to support increasingly unsafe levels of staffing across many health and care settings.”

A Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust spokesperson said:

“Last year, as a consequence of the cost of living crisis and the pressures faced by our staff due to spiralling day-to-day costs, we introduced a cost of living package providing a wide range of support to help colleagues who were struggling.

“The support included financial aid in the form of a hardship grant, general help, advice and resources on financial and mental wellbeing, and for the first time, the opportunity for staff to sell up to five days of their holiday entitlement during 2022/23 financial year.

“Whilst we encourage colleagues to take their annual leave as it enables our minds and bodies to rest and recuperate, we felt that the option for staff to sell some of their annual leave would be appreciated as it would provide a further opportunity to help them with their money worries.

“The scheme ran until the end of March this year and we were pleased to support 492 colleagues who chose to sell some of their annual leave.

“Our staff are our greatest asset and it is important that we support them in these challenging times. Our range of support for staff continues to develop and we will look at introducing further means of support for our staff in the future.”