NHS pays huge agency nurse bill to cover for staff on wards and community care

NURSE shortages cost the health service up to £2.4billion last year, according to new figures.

The bill was for agency nurses who were brought in to plug gaps on wards and in community care when there were not enough staff to look after pa- tients.

The Government brought in a cap on the amount agency health workers could be paid per hour in 2016, after the NHS paid out around £3billion on doctors, nurses and other agency staff in 2014-15.

But figures obtained by the Open University under the Freedom of Information Act from around two thirds of NHS trusts revealed they spent £ 1.46 billion on agency nurses alone in 2017, paying for a total of 79million locum hours.

Expanded to all 241 NHS trusts, the total bill could be £2.4 billion. The money is enough to pay for more than 108,000 newly-qualified nurses in fulltime staff positions – nearly three times as many places as are currently vacant. If the vacant posts were filled, the NHS could save up to £1.56 billion on agency staff costs.

On average, the NHS paid £18.41 for each agency hour last year, which will not all have gone directly to locum nurses as agencies take a cut.

Covering the hours cost the health service approximately 63 per cent more than it would have done if newly-qualified nurses – earning around £11.32 an hour – had been in the posts instead.