Doctors are being paid as much as £3,000 per shift by NHS hospitals to fill “endemic” staff shortages in Accident & Emergency units, an investigation by The Telegraph has found.
On at least 2,300 occasions last year, locum doctors were paid in excess of £1,000 to plug the gaps in rotas at crisis-hit A&E departments, according to official figures.
This included consultants being paid rates of more than £3,000 per shift, with nurses paid up to £1,600.