£11,000 for locums to work over bank holidays
HOSPITALS could pay out more than £11,000 for each locum doctor to work a bank holiday weekend under new rules introduced last week which were supposed to restrict spending.
In June Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he would clamp down on ‘outrageous… rip-off’ doctors, amid concern the rising agency bill is fuelling the worst financial crisis in NHS history.
Announcing plans for maximum hourly rates, Mr Hunt said: ‘It’s outrageous that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by companies charging up to £3,500 a shift for a doctor.’
The pledge followed a string of disclosures about agency staff, including an NHS trust which paid £10,852 for one doctor to work three nine-to-five days last Easter.
But the complex rules, which have just come into effect, mean that hospitals could spend even more to fill the same shift, the Daily Telegraph reported.
Patients groups responded by saying any hope of bringing NHS costs under control
‘Half a nurse’s starting salary’
now appeared ‘a distant dream’ and said the Government had failed to tackle ‘exorbitant’ spending.
The new maximum hourly rates for doctors working weekends, bank holidays and nights are so generous that a hospital could pay out a total of £3,733 for one 24hour shift, including time spent on call when the doctor may not be called in.
A three-day weekend could mean a payment of £11,199 including the money paid back to Treasury coffers in VAT – even if the consultant was on standby for emergencies most of the time. The sum – more than half the annual starting salary for a nurse – is the highest to have been exposed, equating to an annual salary of more than £800,000.
Mr Hunt promised new limits in June when it was revealed that agency bills reached £3.3billion last year, contributing to a record deficit of £1.6billion, announced last Friday.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘This is misleading, the caps are being gradually reduced to allow hospitals time to adapt, so these rates will be halved by April 2016.’