Crisis hospital paid agency £2,500 for one nursing shift

THE NHS has paid more than £2,500 per shift for nurses – breaking the Government’s wage caps as they struggle to plug gaps in rotas, it has been revealed.

Spending on medical agency staff rose by a fifth last year to more than £3billion in England as the NHS grapples with a 10 per cent shortfall in staff.

Of 60 trusts, 10 reported paying more than £2,000 per shift, while another 13 paid between £1,000 and £2,000, data confirm. The most expensive agency shift was reported by Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, at £2,549.

While paying such sums for agency nursing shifts is not the norm, the example shows how much healthcare chiefs are willing to pay to address the staffing crisis.

Agency pay rates have been capped at 55 per cent above what a normal employee would receive since measures were introduced in 2015, but an investigation by the BBC found it was being breached. NHS chiefs are allowed to do so if there is a significant risk to patient safety.

Last year the Government’s pay-rate caps were exceeded for almost nine in 10 agency shifts for doctors and dentists and four in 10 for nurses.

The interim chief of NHS Providers, which represents trusts in England, told the BBC that healthcare bosses have “consistently raised concerns about sky-high agency costs”. Saffron Cordery said: “They’re already facing enormous financial pressures with the impact of inflation and energy costs, and the Government’s failure to fully fund staff pay awards.”