...while one doctor is getting £480 an hour!

ONE hospital has been paying a consultant £5,800 a shift in an extraordinary waste of NHS cash.

The locum doctor is paid £480 an hour in what is the highest-ever recorded rate. Figures uncovered by the NHS’s financial watchdog also show that the top five most expensive consultants cost hospitals £2 million a year.

All are locum or agency doctors, which mean hospitals have to pay additional rates to agencies.

NHS Improvement (NHSI) is urging hospitals to use their own staff to cover shifts rather than expensive locums, saying it could save the health service £480 million a year. Officials would not disclose the identity of the doctor or reveal the hospital where they worked.