Thu, 31 Jul 2014 Short-staffed NHS hospitals are paying agencies huge amounts of money to supply staff for public holiday shifts, an investigation has revealed.

A Freedom of Information request initiated by Sky News showed a locum agency was paid more than £1,800 to supply a mental health nurse for a 12-hour shift on May Day Bank Holiday this year.

The investigation by Sky News also showed a doctor was paid £2,500 to work that day and in one hospital, half the doctors who worked that day were locums. 

At another hospital, almost a third of the nursing staff was supplied by an agency.

None of the agencies involved were identified in the Sky News report.

Royal College of Nursing chief executive Dr Peter Carter told Sky News the figures were “truly shocking” as many of the nurses would have never been on the ward to which they were assigned before, and may never be again.

“It says nothing about continuity of care,” he said.

He went on to say agency nurses did not provide good value for money. 

However, HCL Workforce Solutions managing director client solutions Claire Billenness disagreed.

She told Recruiter that agencies on the national framework, from which NHS usually takes locum staff, have to meet very strict pricing and quality criteria. Average pay for nurses from such agencies was £28 an hour and agency commission was £2 to £6 an hour.

She said the huge fees in this context would likely have been paid to agencies operating outside of the national framework. 

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