WGPlus (Archive)

Financing the promised £8bn by 2020

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has ordered a clampdown as part of tough new financial controls to cut down on waste in the NHS.  Tackling staffing agencies is part of a package of measures that will help to cut costs while improving frontline care.  This action will help the NHS bring down spiralling agency staff bills, which cost the NHS £3.3bn last year.  This was more than the cost of all that year’s 22m A&E admissions combined.  Other controls include limiting the use of expensive management consultants.  The NHS is paying agencies up to £3,500 per shift for doctors and the total bill for management consultants was more than £600m last year.

New rules will:

  • set a maximum hourly rate for agency doctors & nurses
  • ban the use of agencies that are not on approved frameworks
  • put a cap on total agency staff spending for each NHS trust in financial difficult
  • require approval for any consultancy contracts over £50,000
Researched Links:

DH:  Clampdown on staffing agencies charging NHS extortionate rates as part of tough new financial controls to cut down on waste in the NHS

CQC to begin work on assessing use of resources in NHS hospitals

Government trying to stop ‘re-inventing the wheel’

Make a bonfire of wasteful practices

Facing the Future...find out more