Outrage on NHS nurse locum costs

Nurse paid £1,800 for ONE Bank Holiday shift, ‘shocking’ new figures reveal

THE NHS paid a nurse an astonishing £1,800 to cover one shift on a public holiday – and new figures revealed that this is not the only such incident.

Experts have demanded a whole review of the locus system after it emerged some departments could not function without agency staff who are often paid enormous amounts.

A hospital in Bristol paid a nurse the shocking sum to work on the May Day Bank Holiday, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

The nurse worked a shift of just over 12 hours for University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust, meaning he or she was paid around £150 an hour.

Meanwhile University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust paid an agency £2,500 for a locum doctor to work single shift, while four others were paid more than £1,100.

Of the 150 NHS trusts in England asked, 80 responded to the request asking how many agency staff they employed and the highest rates paid on the first May Bank Holiday.

The FOI by Sky News also revealed that half of the doctors working at a West Midlands hospital on May 5 this year were locums.

Half of the doctors working at The Heart of England NHS Trust, in the West Midlands, on May 5 were locums, and in three others, including Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust, almost one in three nurses were from agencies.

Experts warn that using locus who are not familiar with the hospital they are working in can put lives at risk.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, told the Sky: “These figures are truly shocking.

“Agency nurses do not provide good value for money and the employers who use these extraordinary levels should be held to account for it.

“This is public money that is not being well spent. This is something that should be looked at with the utmost urgency.”

A Department of Health spokesman said: “We now have 6,700 more doctors and 6,200 more nurses directly employed by NHS organisations than in 2010.

“The figures are not a full picture of staffing in the NHS, but we encourage all trusts to maintain a tight grip on their staff costs and we will hold poor performers to account.”

Almost 4,000 senior nurses have been axed since the Coalition came to power.

 

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