Temporary agency employee worked for the NHS for 13 years

AN NHS trust appointed a “temporary” agency worker who ended up staying for 13 years, an investigation reveals.

Health officials have repeatedly vowed to clamp down on the use of such workers, who can expect higher rates of pay and greater flexibility about when they work.

But new figures show that trusts are routinely using the supposed shortterm measure to plug staffing gaps for years on end. Since 2012/13 the NHS has spent £16.9billion on agency staff – averaging £2.8 billion a year. Data gathered under Freedom of Information requests revealed more than 3,700 agency workers spent a year or more in their “temporary” post. They include 628 doctors and 2,347 nurses.

One ambulance trust said one worker had continuous agency shifts for more than 13 years. A mental health trust in London hired an agency worker for more than a decade. And a nurse spent almost eight years doing shifts for an NHS trust in the north of England.

One NHS trust had more than 600 people on year-long agency contracts, while 19 trusts had at least one worker on the books for more than five years.

At some trusts, more than one in 10 workers were provided on a long-term basis by agencies. The Labour Party, which gathered the information, said Government decisions to cap NHS pay rises at 1 per cent for six years had fuelled the spending. Justin Madders, the shadow health minister, said: “This Government’s inability to plan the NHS workforce has left patients with dangerously understaffed services and left hospitals to rely on expensive agency solutions. This reliance on agency workers is unsettling for hospitals and causes uncertainty for patients who see continuity of care disrupted.”

Annual spending on agency workers peaked in 2015/16, when the bill reached £3.6billion. In the same year The Daily Telegraph revealed that one locum doctor had been paid £11,000 to work a weekend shift.

Temporary managers received £60,000 a month, with soaring numbers paid “off payroll” despite Government pledges to stop the practice.

Donna Kinnair, director of nursing policy and practice at the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Reliance on large numbers of agency staff to fill the gaps in the NHS is unsustainable. Failure to invest in, value and support our workforce has saved no money at all, but the bill for agency staff, recruitment fees and sickness absence through stress climbs ever higher.

“Ministers must use the extra £20 billion promised to the NHS to fix this false economy and alleviate chronic staffing shortages gripping the country.”