NHS hospitals have paid more than £120 an hour for agency workers to fill staffing gaps during the past year, according to figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
The payments included £96.75 an hour for a GP in Wolverhampton, £100 an hour for a human resources manager in Blackburn, and £121.59 an hour paid for a nurse in a Berkshire hospital.
The figures, which were obtained by the Conservative Party, form part of a bill for NHS agency staff that totalled £1.18 billion in 2005-06, the last year for which the Department of Health has released figures. The total amount was down from the £1.45 billion that was recorded in 2003-04, but more than double the £540 million spent in 1997.
Average hourly pay rates for NHS employees are £15.66 for a nurse, £24.14 for a junior doctor and £60.31 for a consultant, based on the 37.5-hour standard working week, the Tories said.
Andrew Lansley, the Shadow Health Secretary, said: “Labour’s chaotic short-term planning has let down NHS staff. Some stability for them is the least we would have expected from the billions that the Government has poured into the NHS.”
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He added that it was incredible that agencies could be paid such high hourly rates for staff at a time when jobs were being cut.
The Conservatives asked NHS trusts to reveal the top hourly rates that each had paid for agency staff during the previous 12 months. The highest figures also included £121.10 an hour for a nurse at Chesterfield and Royal Hospital NHS Trust and £111.96 for a nurse at Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust. The highest hourly rate for a non-clinical worker was £119 for a turnaround director at Coventry Teaching Primary Care Trust, followed by £110 for financial staff at Heatherwood and Wrexham Park Hospitals NHS Trust and £106.66 for a director of healthcare and procurement at Havering PCT.
Some trusts appeared to have kept agency costs more strictly under control. Bath and North East Somerset PCT said that the most it paid was £31.15 per hour for a nurse, while the South Western Ambulance Service NHS Trust’s most expensive agency worker was a temporary deputy finance director at £33.33 an hour.
Temporary staff are employed across the NHS to meet fluctuations in activity levels and to cover vacancies and short-term absences. Trusts obtain temporary workers from their own nursing bank, from private agencies or from the NHS-run temporary staffing service, NHS Professionals.
A 2007 report by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee said: “Properly managed, temporary nurses play an important role in helping hospitals achieve flexibility.
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“Excessive use can be costly, particularly when trusts are heavily reliant on agency nurses. High use of temporary nurses can also have a negative impact on patient care and satisfaction.”