Agency doctor paid £130-an-hour for hospital shifts

Jan 5 2009 By Henryk Zientek

HEALTH trusts covering a number of hospitals in Kirklees have been named among NHS trusts paying agency staff "hugely inflated" wages to cover shifts.

Figures obtained by the Tory Party under the Freedom of Information Act showed some agency staff were paid hourly rates equivalent to salaries worth hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

The data also showed some agencies were taking large "cuts" in return for supplying clinical staff such as doctors and non-clinical staff such as managers to the NHS.

The Conservatives said NHS organisations across England were paying agency workers "hugely inflated" hourly rates to cover gaps in normal staffing.

The Party asked all NHS trusts to provide details of the highest amount they paid to an agency worker between May and October 2008 and received a response rate of more than 70%.

Among them, the Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, covering Dewsbury hospitals, paid £130.76 an hour for a doctor during August – equivalent to an annual salary of £255,000; £104.79 for a doctor in September (£204,340) and £94 for a doctor in July (£183,300).

South West Yorkshire Mental Health NHS Trust, which includes St Luke’s Hospital at Crosland Moor, paid £38.42 for a finance analyst in May (£74,919); £105.07 for a consultant psychiatrist in October (£204,886) and £39.46 for a pharmacist in August (£76,947).