NHS spends £600m on agency nurses

The soaring bill for plugging nursing shortages in hospitals is exposed today.

This has created a bonanza for private agencies, whose huge fees eat into budgets for patient care.

Patient groups and politicians reacted with dismay today, calling for renewed efforts to address NHS recruitment problems.

They say more must be done to attract permanent nurses and say hospital managers must plan staffing requirements more efficiently.

Up to a fifth of nursing posts are unfilled in some hospitals, despite huge efforts to attract recruits.

The Government set up its own agency, NHS Professionals, but the move has failed to reduce costs. The health service spent £589 million on temporary nurses last year - £35 million more than in 2002.

Almost all the hospitals with the biggest bills are in London, where permanent staff are hard to find because of the high cost of living.

Guy's and St Thomas' spent more than £14 million on freelance nurses, University College London £10 million, Whipps Cross just under £10 million, Bart's and The London almost £9 million.

The total bill for London was more than £220 million.

Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow, who uncovered the figures, said: "It is a staggering sum. This is a measure of this Government's failure to recruit and retain permanent NHS staff.

"Too much of the extra money the taxpayer is investing in the NHS is going on plugging gaps with costly agency staff." Britain has 50,000 more nurses than in 1997 - regarded as a major achievement. However, thousands of them were recruited from overseas by agencies and only work part-time.

There are also concerns that agency nurses are working on specialist wards where they have little or no experience. Simon Williams, of the Patients' Association, said: "Patients want continuity of care, and that is something they just don't get with temporary nurses."

It has proved difficult to persuade hospital managers to use NHS Professionals. However, the Department of Health said the agency had now "turned the corner".

"It had a bumpy start but use of the service is now increasing. We expect it to get stronger and stronger. At the same time we continue to try and recruit more nurses."