Wednesday, January 7, 2009

NHS agency staff 'get £200 an hour'


NHS agency staff 'get £200 an hour'
Saturday, January 3 12:37 pm

NHS hospitals are paying agency staff almost £200 an hour to cover shifts, the Tories have said.




Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act showed some staff are paid hourly rates equivalent to salaries worth hundreds of thousands a year and agencies are taking large "cuts" in return for supplying workers.
The Tories said NHS organisations across England were paying agency staff "hugely inflated" hourly rates to cover gaps in normal cover.
The Party asked all NHS trusts to provide details of the highest amount they paid to an agency worker between May and October 2008 and received a response rate of more than 70 per cent.
Whipps Cross University Hospitals NHS Trust said it paid £188 an hour for an anaesthetics medical consultant - equivalent to an annual salary of £366,000.
Trafford Healthcare NHS Trust paid £167 for an A&E doctor, equivalent to £326,000 a year, and Dorset Primary Care Trust paid £158 an hour for a prison GP, which would amount to £307,000 a year.
Most organisations were unable to say how the hourly rate was split between the worker and the agency, but some agencies were found to be taking large cuts.
Somerset Partnership NHS Foundation Trust paid £116 per hour for a nurse but the agency took £50 (43 per cent), and Oxfordshire Primary Care Trust paid £94 per hour for a nurse but the agency took £40 (43 per cent).
Shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley, said: "It's incredible that agency staff can be paid such high hourly rates when jobs are being cut at the same time. This is typical of the waste that's occurred under this Labour Government."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said the Government was spending less on agency staff year on year.


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