Millions of pounds spent on agency doctors has underlined cost of understaffing at Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust.
In response to a freedom of information request, the trust has revealed that it shelled out £2,900,000 on doctors from private agencies to plug gaps in its workforce.
Agency staff are brought in to cover when there aren’t enough staff on shift, at a far higher cost than those who work full time for the NHS. Portsmouth Hospitals University NHS Trust spent as much as £2,581 on a single doctor’s shift last year, meaning money that could have been spent elsewhere instead went towards inflated agency fees.
In total the NHS has spent £4.6 billion on agency doctors in the last five years. This year it paid £3 billion to agencies who provide doctors and nurses at short notice, a 20% increase compared with last year.
Trusts spent a further £6 billion on bank staff, when NHS staff are paid to do temporary shifts, taking the total spent on additional staff to around £9.2 billion.
The NHS currently has 9,000 vacancies for doctors, with a record 133,000 vacancies in total. Despite the shortages, the Conservative government this summer cut medical school places by 3,000, meaning thousands more students who want to help are being turned away.
Labour will tackle staff shortages in the NHS to save taxpayers’ money being wasted on agency recruiters and treat patients on time again by:
- doubling the number of medical school places to train 15,000 doctors a year
- training 10,000 new nurses and midwives every year
- doubling the number of district nurses qualifying each year
- providing 5,000 new health visitors.
The plans will be paid for by abolishing non-dom tax status, which allows residents of the UK to avoid paying taxes here.
Stephen Morgan, MP for Portsmouth South, said:
“Desperate hospitals are forced to pay rip-off fees to agencies, because the Tories have failed to train enough doctors and nurses over the past 12 years.
“It is infuriating that, while Portsmouth taxpayers are paying over the odds on agency staff, the government has cut medical school places, turning away thousands of straight-A students in England.
“Labour will tackle the root cause of the crisis in the NHS, training 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses a year, paid for by abolishing the non-dom tax status. Portsmouth people need doctors and nurses, not non-doms.”
