NHS Boards criticised over £1,500 agency nurse payment

New figures obtained by the Scottish Conservatives have revealed that NHS Lanarkshire spent £1,565 to cover a single nursing shift in 2015-16.

The figures were obtained under a Freedom of Information (FoI) request submitted by the group, which also showed that the highest amount paid for a single shift was NHS Lothian at £1,528, with NHS Ayrshire and Arran, also found to pay single shift fees of over £1000.

Health Secretary Shona Robison said agency bills were down 11 per cent in 10 years.

Donald Cameronn health spokesperson for the conservatives commented: “It is staggering that hard-pressed health boards could find themselves paying this much to an agency for a nursing shift".

He added: "Not only is it an astonishing waste of taxpayers' money, but it's a slap in the face to staff nurses who can only dream of such remuneration. Bank and agency nurses play an important role when it comes to helping plug gaps in the NHS. But demands of more than £1,500 for a single shift are an abuse, and one health boards should not bow to. The SNP's woeful lack of workforce planning and failure to train enough nurses has created a situation where hospitals are too dependent on bank and agency staff.

"The result of that is health boards paying through the nose, when an adequately resourced rota could have done the job at a fraction of the price. Following these revelations, ministers should examine these instances of extremely high payments to agencies, and act to ensure they don't occur again."

Responding to the figures, Health Secretary Shona Robinson, countered: “Boards only use bank and agency staff when they have to and the vast majority are the board's own nursing staff agency staff.

"Agency staff make up only 0.4 per cent of overall staffing numbers and the amount of money spent on agency nurses and midwives is 11.3 per cent lower today than it was a decade ago.

"We want to reduce agency use as much as possible and earlier this year we launched a new initiative, in partnership with NHS National Services Scotland, to drive down the cost and use of all temporary agency staff.

"Around £6 billion is spent on the NHS workforce annually. A record number of people now work within the NHS in Scotland, with 99.6 per cent of all care delivered by NHS staff.

"This includes more than 43,100 qualified nurses and midwives, an increase of more than 2,100 since this government took office."