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10.05.16

Hunt says NHS is ‘turning the tide’ on agency spend

The agency staffing cap has saved £300m since it was introduced last year, according to NHS Improvement.

The cap was introduced to curb high levels of spending on agencies, but a Liaison survey found that nearly three quarters of shifts worked in the 10 weeks after it was introduced breached the cap.

However, the government and NHS are highlighting savings achieved by the cap as a sign that it is working. NHS Improvement noted that prior to the introduction of the agency control measures, the NHS was on course to spend £4bn on agency staff. The new measures means that regulator now expects the health service to spend a total of £3.7bn on agency staff by the end of the 2015/16 financial year.

In an appearance before the Health Select Committee yesterday, health secretary Jeremy Hunt said: “I do believe that we are starting to turn the tide on the exploding agency bill.”

He added that cutting agency spending was the biggest single efficiency saving the NHS needed to make this year.

Jim Mackey, chief executive of NHS Improvement, said: “We’ve known the scale of the financial challenge facing the NHS for sometime and dramatically reducing the amount of money hospitals spend on agency staff is a key part of our plan to balance the books.

“The measures have had a real impact and we are starting to see a significant reduction in the amount of NHS money being paid to these agencies. We need to keep up the pressure and make sure the era of overreliance on agency staff comes to an end.”

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