NHS England wasted money on agency staff - nursing union

The Royal College of Nursing says the money was spent "to plug chronic staff shortages"

The NHS has spent more than £384m on agency staff in north west England over three years, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has revealed.

The figures followed a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by the RCN on nursing staff spend from 2020 to 2022.

It said the NHS has "squandered" money on agencies "to plug chronic staff shortages" but it was "false economy".

They said cash could pay for nearly 4,000 full time staff instead. NHS England has yet to comment.

The nurses union and professional body said the figures showed a £3bn spend nationally amid a "recruitment crisis".

It accused the NHS England of "squandering" billions of pounds money to plug rota gaps and keep wards open.

The RCN said poor government, planning and underfunding of the NHS has forced trusts to spend millions that could have paid the salaries of almost 31,000 full-time nurses across England.

Instead, it said the NHS was forcing hospitals to spend vast sums on agency staff as services run under the strain of over 40,000 vacant nursing posts.

The RCN said alternatively, the money spent on agencies could have trained over 86,000 new nurses following research by London Economics which estimated the cost of training a nurse is £37,287.

The findings demonstrate costs spiralling by 63% from £800m in 2020 to £1.3bn in 2022, the RCN added.

The figures showed costs were highest in London, where hospitals spent £630m on agency staff, while in the North of England, hospitals paid out £109m for staff working temporary shifts across the three years.

'False economy'

The RCN's chief nurse Prof Nicola Ranger, said: "Ministers have got their priorities wrong - forcing trusts to squander billions on agency staff while they provide miserly funding for fair pay and nurse education."

She added: "This should act as a wake-up call.

"The government must give nursing staff and patients the investment and respect they deserve."

Paul Wood, of the Royal College of Nursing North West, said it was the "perfect example of the shocking nursing workforce crisis we're in".

"Money cannot be haemorrhaged in this way; it's shocking to think what it could have been spent on. "

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said the figures were during the Covid pandemic when "staff sickness rates were exceptionally high" and 50,000 extra nurses have been recruited.

A spokeswoman said: "While temporary staffing allows the NHS to meet fluctuations in demand, we are controlling spending by capping hourly pay and prioritising NHS staff when shifts need filling."

Not all NHS trusts provided a response to the FOI.

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