Agency spending ‘name and shame’ threat

In a bid to crack down on agency spending, NHS bosses are threatening to ‘name and shame’ high spending trusts in England.

NHS Improvement believes that the NHS has slipped behind schedule in its efforts to reduce the agency bill, and has warned that it wants more progress.

A cap was introduced in October and has so far saved £600 million, but the regulator wants the £3.6 billion spent on agency staff last year brought down by £1 billion by the end of this financial year. The latest accounts suggested NHS trusts were 10 per cent below where they wanted to be.

Hospitals, mental health trusts and ambulance services should not be paying more than 55 per cent above normal shift rates for any staff, reducing the overall cost of agency staff and reducing hospital reliance on them in the process.

NHS Improvement has therefore threatened that it would start publishing ‘league tables’ of the best and worst-performing trusts on agency spending later this year, after discovering examples of hospitals being quoted double the rates for doctors.

Jim Mackey, NHS Improvement chief executive, said: "The NHS simply doesn't have the money to keep forking out for hugely expensive agency staff. There's much more to be done."