Mid Staffordshire NHS spent £4,218,753 on agency staff in one year, with costs for shifts greatly above regular pay, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

The yearly cost rose by almost £1m in one year.

Staffordshire Newsletter report:

CASH-STRAPPED Stafford Hospital forked out almost £1,800 to a nursing agency for a specialist to cover a holiday shift at the beleaguered A&E department, it was revealed this week.

The payment, which marks a trend in NHS organisations to rely on agency workers to plug gaps in staffing, represents a significant increase over what a staff member in the same role would be paid.

The same month, the Trust paid £1.475.38 for a 13.5 hour shift to a general agency nurse, also over a bank holiday.

You can read the full story here. 

Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.