NHS across UK spends a ‘staggering’ £10bn on temporary staff

Widespread staff shortages across the UK has forced the NHS to hire stand-in workers from employment agencies. Photograph: Jeff Moore/PA

Ministers are facing calls to tackle the NHS’s chronic lack of staff as figures reveal that the bill for hiring temporary frontline workers has soared to more than £10bn a year.

Hospitals and GP surgeries across the UK are paying a record £4.6bn for agency personnel and another £5.8bn for doctors and nurses on staff to do extra “bank” shifts to plug gaps in rotas.