Cash injections may help staff.
Byline: Greg Tindle Health CorrespondentHEALTH workers could be in line for a major cash boost in a desperate bid to attract new NHS workers.
It follows the latest survey which shows spiralling house prices are now beyond the reach of most nurses - with a standard terraced home costing more than pounds 100,000.
Demands are now being made for a special allowance to be given - an extra pounds 1,000 per year - to help attract NHS staff to fill the hundreds of vacancies in hospitals run by the Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust.
And the calls for special pay rates by union leaders for nurses and other health workers have met with a sym-pathetic response from NHS managers who admit the high cost of living in Cardiff is hindering their recruitment drive.
``We are considering a special Cardiff allowance along the lines which apply to certain areas of England,'' said senior trust manager Judith Hardisty.
But the cost of such a move could add more than pounds 1m to the trust's pay bill if it applied to all of their 10,000 workers - cash they would have to find from their existing budgets. The introduction of a special Cardiff allowance was raised by Stuart Egan, leader of the hospital union Unison.
``Living in Cardiff is very expensive to either buy or rent accommodation,'' he said.
``This high cost of a home has affected the recruitment and retention of staff and a special allowance of about pounds 1,000 a year is needed to tackle the problem.''
Mr Egan's comments are supported by the Royal College of Nursing.
Their leader, Liz Hewett, said: ``The cost of living and property prices in Cardiff is affecting the recruitment of staff to hospitals.
``Student nurses and even experienced staff nurses on a salary of pounds 16,000 to pounds 17,000 a year just cannot afford the property prices.''
Estate agent Kelvin Francis, the Cardiff spokesman for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, said: ``There is little left in Cardiff for the first time buyer with prices rising by 13 per cent in the past year.
``The average cost of a home in the Heath area - a popular homes market for health workers and a barometer for house sales in the city - is now pounds 180,000 for a three bed semi, with a rental of the same property at pounds 700 per month.''
Echo Comment: See Page 8
 Printer friendly
 Cite/link
 Email
 Feedback
| |
| Publication: | South Wales Echo (Cardiff, Wales) |
|---|---|
| Date: | Aug 12, 2002 |
| Words: | 406 |
| Previous Article: | Lap-tops lifted. |
| Next Article: | Tanker signed out of dock. |