PAC report: NHS temp staff spending should be via national framework
3 February 2015
The National Health Service (NHS) should be required to use agency staff within a national framework to help save money, a select committee report, published today (3 February), says.
Tue, 3 Feb 2015The National Health Service (NHS) should be required to use agency staff within a national framework to help save money, a select committee report, published today (3 February), says.
The Public Accounts Committee report reveals NHS England spent £2.6bn on temporary medical staff in the 2013-14 year, up from £2.1bn the previous year.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, for example, had a 50% shortage of emergency consultants and was spending £1.5m a month on temporary staff.
The report said some emergency consultants, who had each cost the taxpayer £400k in training fees, were choosing to leave the NHS to work on an agency basis, charging up to £1,760 a day.
“Despite the NHS being the dominant employer of temporary medical staff, the Department [of Health] has not made best use of its position to reduce the costs involved. Some agencies do not participate in the Department’s framework contract which limits local NHS bodies’ ability to achieve value for money when hiring agency staff, particularly those needed to fill high vacancy rates in emergency departments,” the report said.
Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) chief executive Chris Bryce said in a statement that criticism of increased spending on consultants “disregards the vital services they offer to healthcare in the UK”.
“Locum doctors are the antidote to the chronic supply shortages the NHS suffers from and we should embrace the flexible nature in which they offer their expertise,” he said.
Committee recommendations include requiring NHS bodies to use agency staff within a national framework contract unless they can demonstrate clear value for money in doing otherwise; and examining obligations on consultants who are trained at taxpayer expense but choose to work as temporary staff at extra cost to the NHS.
The Public Accounts Committee report reveals NHS England spent £2.6bn on temporary medical staff in the 2013-14 year, up from £2.1bn the previous year.
Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust, for example, had a 50% shortage of emergency consultants and was spending £1.5m a month on temporary staff.
The report said some emergency consultants, who had each cost the taxpayer £400k in training fees, were choosing to leave the NHS to work on an agency basis, charging up to £1,760 a day.
“Despite the NHS being the dominant employer of temporary medical staff, the Department [of Health] has not made best use of its position to reduce the costs involved. Some agencies do not participate in the Department’s framework contract which limits local NHS bodies’ ability to achieve value for money when hiring agency staff, particularly those needed to fill high vacancy rates in emergency departments,” the report said.
Association of Independent Professionals and the Self Employed (IPSE) chief executive Chris Bryce said in a statement that criticism of increased spending on consultants “disregards the vital services they offer to healthcare in the UK”.
“Locum doctors are the antidote to the chronic supply shortages the NHS suffers from and we should embrace the flexible nature in which they offer their expertise,” he said.
Committee recommendations include requiring NHS bodies to use agency staff within a national framework contract unless they can demonstrate clear value for money in doing otherwise; and examining obligations on consultants who are trained at taxpayer expense but choose to work as temporary staff at extra cost to the NHS.
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