New figures reveal Calderdale Royal Hospital spent more than £9m on wages for agency staff over the last three years

Information obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveals that the hospital spent £9,235,976 on wages for agency staff between 2020 and 2022.

Of that total, £6,646,912 was spent on agency nurses and £2,134,541 was spent on agency doctors.

There were 711 agency staff used over the three years at the hospital, including 331 nurses and 47 doctors.

The highest costing single agency staff shift in wages was £2,819, which paid for an agency doctor's shift in 2021.

Another agency doctor's shift cost £2,352 in 2022, while the shift of one agency nurse cost £2,127 last year.

Agency staff were employed across a number of departments at the hospital, and included doctors, nurses, allied health professionals - which can include occupational therapists, podiatrists and dieticians - admin staff and additional clinical staff.

Halifax MP Holly Lynch said: "The figures revealed by the Halifax Courier demonstrate the local impact of a national failure in workforce planning.

"It’s shocking to see that our hospital trust could be paying nearly £3,000 to cover a single doctor’s shift, but hospitals cannot address the skill shortages alone.

"The absence of any workforce planning at all under this Government is what has left us vulnerable to such high agency bills.

"Labour’s priority for the NHS is a workforce plan because we can only transform care and bring costs under control when we have the right number of valued staff equipped with the necessary skills."

Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said: “The delay in the long overdue workforce plan has meant NHS leaders have no other option but to hire agency staff to plug the gaps in vacancies.

“The NHS is facing a backdrop of 124,00 vacancies and rising demand, using agency staff is often the only option leaders have to ensure appointments and operations are not cancelled for patients.“Three months ago we wrote to the Chancellor on the urgent need for the workforce plan, which would help address the ongoing recruitment and retention crisis facing health and social care. The government must now publish the plan imminently, with commitment to fund the plan in full.”

Executive Director of Workforce and Organisational Development, Suzanne Dunkley, said: “To maintain safe staffing in our hospitals we do employ agency staff.

"We have seen the highest numbers of patients ever attending our emergency departments over the past three years, and had additional beds open throughout our hospital.

"We are also working incredibly hard to see as many patients as we can whose treatment may have been delayed due to the COVID pandemic.

"Additional resource is therefore often required to provide timely care.”