NHS locum physician paid £11,000 to operate a weekend

An NHS hospital paid the record sum of practically £11,000 for one locum doctor to cover a bank vacation weekend, new figures display.

The payment comes amid record spending by the well being support on company medical professionals and nurses, which cost £3.3bn in the final monetary 12 months.

Individuals groups explained the sum – more than half the annual starting salary for a nurse – was “outrageous” and could not be justified.

On an regular doctor’s contract this kind of a sum would equate to a salary of much more than £830,000 a 12 months.

Freedom of Data disclosures reveal that County Durham and Darlington Basis Believe in paid £10,852 for the services of a locum consultant more than final Easter bank holiday weekend.

The cardiologist worked three 9am to 5pm shifts on Very good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, at rates well worth £3,617 a day.

The medical doctor, hired through agency Locum Vision, was also on phone to react to emergency situations, but was never necessary.

• New NHS spending scandal: £3.three billion wasted on agency doctors

• How nursing companies producing billions are bleeding the NHS dry

• NHS will clamp down on ‘rip off’ agency costs

Chesterfield Royal Hospital Foundation Trust, paid £3,456 to locum company ID health-related for a advisor in respiratory medicine to function a 24 hour shift on Easter Monday.

A week later Wye Valley Believe in paid virtually £3,000 to hire a paediatrician for 24 hrs.

The revelations come amid expanding concern about the NHS reliance on temporary workers, at expenses which have plunged the wellness service into deficit.

Senior medical doctors say hospitals are getting forced to pay out premium prices for consultants and nurses, considerably of which went to agencies, because of “desperate” shortages of key workers.

Simon Stevens, the head of the NHS just lately pledged to cap hourly pay costs, and to make sure that trusts in fiscal issues have an overall restrict on spending on agency workers.

Professor Chris Gray, health care director of County Durham and Darlington Foundation Trust, mentioned: “While it is regrettable to have such a substantial company invest our priority is the delivery of secure high quality care.

“We are doing work to recruit far more stroke consultants but the shortage of this kind of expert staff is one thing that is recognised nationally.

“As an organisation we are hunting at our recruitment methods and our clinical configuration for the long term to identify techniques of decreasing our agency spend but although this operate is ongoing we nonetheless need to have to supply a stroke services for the regional population which is meeting national top quality standards.

‘The trust is actively in search of a answer to the problem based on the recruitment of higher good quality substantive advisor workers.”

Locum Vison, an company based mostly in Milton Keynes, says it is the “number one off-framework supplier of medical doctors in niche specialties across the UK”.

This implies it is permitted to charge a lot more than framework agreements the NHS has previously launched in a bid to hold costs down.

The agency says it negotiates with customers to make certain that medical doctors obtain “the ideal achievable price of pay”.

It has lately advertised advisor jobs at up to £125 an hour, with contracts lasting up to 6 months.

Trusts mentioned the payments integrated VAT, fees to agencies, and that they have been trying to fill vacancies.

A spokesman for Chesterfield Royal Hospital Basis Trust explained: “We agreed this expenditure to make certain we could cover the health-related rota at short observe. Much more importantly, it ensured there was a senior clinician available to make decisions about the critically unwell individuals on our wards over the bank holiday. At the time we had a gap in our consultant team, with a common doctor vacancy that has now been filled. We have a robust approach to comply with just before locum expenditure is agreed, but always place safe patient care and services continuity 1st.’

Dr Susan Gilbey, health-related director of Wye Valley Trust mentioned: “The believe in is working incredibly challenging on exploring every avenue to recruit experienced medical professionals to improve personnel numbers inside of our hospitals, as part of the trust’s recruitment and retention plan.”

She mentioned: “The figure of £2936.94 was the highest quantity paid by the Trust to an company medical professional for a single shift amongst the period March 28 to April 19 2015, but it was for a 24 hour shift.

“The expense per hour of this shift (£100.98) includes the agency charge and does not signify the physicians shell out rate. The rest of the value is made up of VAT”.

NHS locum physician paid £11,000 to operate a weekend