Hunt targets staffing agencies ‘simply ripping off the NHS’

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a clampdown on staffing agencies that are “ripping off the NHS”, in a bid to improve the health service’s financial woes.

Agency staff bills cost the NHS £3.3 billion last year, more than the cost of all 22 million A&E admissions combined.

The strict new rules will introduce a maximum hourly rate for agency doctors and nurses, ban the use of agencies that are not approved, and put a cap on total agency staff spending for each NHS trust in financial difficulty.

Agency doctors are currently paid up to £3,500 per shift while the total bill for management consultants was more than £600 million last year.

Mr Hunt said an immediate cap of £50,000 will be applied to all management consultancy contracts.

He announced the measures as part of a package of new financial controls to cut down on waste in the NHS.

Last month a report by the regulator Monitor found a huge “over-reliance” on contract and agency staff meant NHS foundation trusts reported a £349 million deficit during the last financial year, taking trusts in England overall to £822 million in the red.

NHS England boss Simon Stevens has also said the health service will need a further £8 billion by 2020 at the same time as needing to make £22 billion of efficiency savings.

Mr Hunt said: “Expensive staffing agencies are quite simply ripping off the NHS.

“It’s outrageous that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by companies charging up to £3,500 a shift for a doctor.

“The NHS is bigger than all of these companies, so we’ll use that bargaining power to drive down rates and beat them at their own game.”

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “Jeremy Hunt is trying to pull the wool over people’s eyes by acting as if the £3 billion agency bill is a problem he has suddenly discovered. The truth is that it is a problem created by Tory mismanagement of the NHS.

“The decision to cut 6,000 nursing posts in the early years of the last parliament, alongside big reductions in nurse training places, has left the NHS in the grip of private staffing agencies. The Tory government is responsible for this monumental waste of NHS resources.

“If the Government is serious about breaking the hold staffing agencies have over the NHS, then ministers need to recruit more nurses and increase training places immediately.”

Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “The NHS can’t continue spending so much money on short-term staffing solutions so it is right to focus on getting better value for money, and to improving the continuity of care, which is better for patients.

“The health service needs to focus on the root cause of this problem, not just the symptoms. A lack of investment in nurse training and cuts to nurse numbers mean that trusts now have no choice but to pay over the odds for agency staff and recruiting overseas.

“Further detail on these plans is needed to answer questions such as how a maximum rate will be set and whether it will vary based on location and experience. Patient safety must always come first, so any plans for a cap on spending must ensure that it does not prevent trusts from providing safe staffing levels when there are no alternatives.

“Instead of relying on agencies, efforts must be made to reward and value existing staff and to retain the skilled and experienced workforce through the introduction of family friendly working policies.”

Mark Porter, British Medical Association (BMA) council chairman, said: “Agency staff are an important part of the NHS workforce, especially during periods of high demand or staff absences, but they should not be used as a long-term solution to gaps in the NHS workforce.

“Greater reliance on agency staff is a sign of stress on the system and the result of poor workforce planning by government.

“Increasingly, locums are employed as hospitals can’t attract staff to take up full-time posts, so we need to address the root causes of the recruitment and retention problem in many parts of the NHS, especially emergency medicine.”

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