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Tackling staffing agencies is part of a package of measures that is aimed at cutting costs while improving frontline care.
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The DoH said that the NHS is paying agencies up to £3,500 per shift for doctors, and the total bill for management consultants was more than £600 million last year.
The new rules will:
- set a maximum hourly rate for agency doctors and 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.
The agency staff cap will firstly apply to nursing staff but will be extended to other clinical, medical and management and administrative staff. Capped rates will be reduced from the initial set level over time.
Ripping off
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said: "The path to safer, more compassionate care is the same as the path to lower costs. Simon Stevens (NHS England, Chief Executive) said the NHS needed an extra £8 billion by 2020 and the government has invested that. Now the NHS must deliver its side of the bargain for patients by eliminating waste, helped by the controls on spending we’re putting in place.
"Expensive staffing agencies are quite simply ripping off the NHS. It’s outrageous that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by companies charging up to £3,500 a shift for a doctor. The NHS is bigger than all of these companies, so we’ll use that bargaining power to drive down rates and beat them at their own game."
Agencies
Use of agency staff has risen from £1.8 billion to £3.3 billion in three years to help correct historic understaffing on wards. The Government wants to see hospitals employing more permanent staff - there is clinical evidence this improves patient care.
Management consultants
The DoH said that hospitals are increasingly hiring management consultants by default instead of looking at the skills they have within the hospital. An immediate cap of £50,000 will be applied to all management consultancy contracts and Trusts that need to break it for clinical reasons will have to get permission from their regulator, Monitor or the Trust Development Authority to do so.
Procurement
Hospitals currently negotiate prices for supplies individually and as a result cannot always secure the best prices for products. The NHS will collectively negotiate with suppliers using economies of scale to drive a harder bargain.
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Susie Hughes © Shout99 2015
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