NHS spending on agency nurses soars past £5.5bn

NHS spending on agency nurses soars past £5.5bn Government accused of truly incompetent planning after years of training cuts push cost of temporary staff way over budget

NHS spending on agency nurses and staff has spiralled to more than £5.5bn over the past four years and is continuing to rise amid a debilitating recruitment crisis in the health service. Budgets for temporary staff this financial year have already been blown apart, it can be revealed, with spending in some parts of the NHS running at twice the planned figure.

Reliance on agencies at a cost of up to £1,800 per day per nurse comes as the number of nurse training places in England has been cut. In the last year of the Labour government, 20,829 nurse training positions were filled in England. That fell to 17,741 in 2011-12 and to 17,219 in 2012-13, rising to 18,009 in 2013-14. Continue reading... The Guardian