- Money spent on hiring local agency doctors and nurses to cover hundreds of shifts and absences reaches record levels
- Concerns emerged that poor workplace planning is contributing to rising wait times
Scotland NHS was forced to spend £620 million on temporary workers last year in a desperate bid to tackle a major staffing crisis.
Official figures show that huge sums have been spent on hiring local doctors and nurses from banks or institutions to cover hundreds of shifts and absences.
The record bill for agency workers has led to claims that staff and patients are paying the price of the Scottish Government’s botched workforce planning.
A total of £490m was spent on nursing and midwifery staff across banks and institutions in 2023-2024, new NHS workforce statistics show.
Hundreds of millions of pounds were spent last year on temporary staff to fulfill NHS services
Spending was 9.5 percent higher than the previous year’s £447.4 million and has doubled in the past three years.
In addition, £129.6 million was spent on local doctors and dentists, up 8.3 per cent on last year’s £119.6 million.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said: ‘These figures show the cost of attempting to plug the cracks left by the SNP’s failed workforce planning.
‘This SNP-Green government’s complete inability to recruit and retain staff goes back to Nicola Sturgeon cutting training places, claiming this was ‘sensible’. Now both staff and patients are paying the price.
‘Scottish Liberal Democrats would completely overhaul the SNP’s failed NHS recovery plan to get workforce planning back on track and increase training places in key areas such as mental health and dentistry.
‘The SNP must also reverse their opposition to a burnout prevention strategy or they risk losing many more NHS staff.’
A total of £338.8 million was spent on 7,019 bank nurses last year. They performed 13.68 million hours of work, giving them an average hourly wage of £24.76.
A further £151.16 million was spent on 1,695 nurses and midwives who worked 3.3 million hours, giving them an average hourly wage of £45.74. Spending on temporary staff has increased faster than the growth in the number of permanent employees in the past year.
The latest figures come after growing concerns about the NHS staffing crisis.
The Royal College of Nursing also warned that workplace pressures across the UK are leading to an increase in calls to the advice line from staff struggling with thoughts of suicide.
Earlier this year it was revealed that the NHS had spent more than £1 million a year to employ two local psychiatrists in the Western Isles.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: ‘The majority of temporary staff come from staff banks; these are NHS workers working on NHS wages.
‘The increase in bank spending is the result of our efforts to reduce expensive expenditure on nursing and midwifery agencies, which has fallen by almost 11 per cent.
‘We have a record number of staff, including a record number of medical and dental consultants, nurses and midwives and paramedics.’
