Hospitals: Agency staff costs soar 60%
Yeovil District Hospitals Trust paid £146 an hour for an agency nurse – equivalent to an annual salary of £258,000.
Elsewhere, NHS hospitals paid hourly rates as high as £400 for a manager and £375 for a doctor – the equivalent in some cases of 10 or more times the average staff pay for the same jobs.
The £1.254 billion spent on agency staff in 2008/09 is almost half a billion more than the £786 million bill run-up in 2006/07, when then Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt said it was "common sense" to cut back on agency workers.
Conservatives said the sums amounted to twice the annual budget for cancer drugs and almost as much as the NHS spends on maternity services.
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said it was "unforgivable" that an estimated £300 million of NHS money ended up in the pockets of the employment agencies that take a slice of the cash.
A spokesman for Yeovil District Hospitals Trust said hiring an agency nurse for an hourly rate of £146 was a "one-off" during a night shift on a bank holiday.
She said: "Patient safety is the trust's top priority.
"This was a one-off cost due to exceptional circumstances where a highly specialised agency nurse was employed to cover short notice absence to ensure the safety of very vulnerable patients in our special care baby unit during a particular night shift on a bank holiday."
Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust used agency staff on three occasions, which included paying £57 an hour for a registered nurse (equivalent to an annual salary of £100,480) a consultant at £86 an hour (equivalent to an annual salary of £150,835) an optometrist at £53 (equivalent to an annual salary of £93,994).
Karen Grimshaw, director of nursing and midwifery at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said it had reduced spending on agency staff.
She said: "Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust will always try to cover shifts with our trust staff or through NHS Professionals, avoiding the need for large numbers of agency staff.
"However, there are occasions where the trust does use agency staff on a strictly short-term basis, such as a large increase of unexpected absences due to sickness, or in clinical areas where particular skills are required."
Health trusts in Torbay, Exeter, Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly and the South West Strategic Health Authority also employed agency staff.
Elsewhere, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital King's Lynn NHS Trust paid £375 an hour for an agency doctor – equivalent to an annual salary of £660,000 – and the Whittington Hospital NHS Trust in north London paid £400 an hour for an information management and technology officer – equivalent to an annual salary of £705,000.
Mr Lansley said: "This is a hugely wasteful way to run the NHS. Only under a Labour Government could an efficiency drive actually result in rising spending on temporary and agency staff.
A Department of Health spokesman said: "Increasing the quality of, and achieving best value for money, from temporary staffing is an important aspect of workforce planning in the NHS."
