£18,000 for one week’s work

How NHS is forking out a fortune for private firms to tackle staffing shortages

A MASSIVE increase in hospital consultant vacancies has seen Scottish health chiefs spend £100 million hiring locums from private agencies.

One firm was paid £18,000 to supply a cancer specialist for just one week’s work, a Sunday Post investigation has discovered.

Scotland’s cash-strapped health authorities are short of some 415 consultants, forcing them to turn to expensive locum agencies.

But watchdogs have raised fears over whether the payments to firms are being properly checked.

spokesman Donald Cameron said: “This is a terrible use of taxpayers’ money, and is starving an already hard-pressed NHS of precious resources.

“There will always be a place for locums. But due to the SNP’s chaotic workforce planning, health boards have become utterly dependent on them.

“Such a reliance leads to the ludicrous examples set out by The Sunday Post.”

In 2015/16, just over £6 billion (55%) of NHS spending went on staff costs.

According to Audit Scotland, the percentage of staff spending given to agency staff had increased from 1.4% in 2011/12 to 2.8% in 2015/16.

A report into the NHS workforce spending is due to be published by the spending watchdog next month.

Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “The SNP has made