Hospitals pay agency staff £100 an hour

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show some staff were paid hourly rates equivalent to salaries worth hundreds of thousands of pounds a year.

The data also showed some agencies were taking large "cuts" – in some cases more than 40 per cent – in return for supplying workers to the NHS.

The party asked all NHS trusts to provide details of the highest amount they paid to an agency worker between May and October 2008 and received a response rate of more than 70 per cent.

Worcestershire PCT was one of the biggest spenders in the region – paying an agency nurse £111.58 per hour in August – the equivalent of a £217, 581 annual salary.

South Staffordshire PCT paid out a similar wage to an A&E project manager between May and October – £100 per hour, which is equivalent to £195,000 per annum.

In Dudley, hourly rates of more than £96 were regularly paid out to agency staff, including £96.05 per hour for a locum consultant in general surgery and £92.96 for an agency doctor by Dudley Hospitals NHS Trust. And £93 per hour was paid out by Dudley PCT for an interim director of human resources between May and October. Each of these hourly rates equates to an annual salary of more than £180,000.

Wolverhampton City PCT paid £80.20 for a project worker, equivalent to £156, 409.50 per year, in April and £72.96 per hour for a primary care project manager in June, which equates to a £142,272 annual salary.

The Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust paid £84.97 per hour for a consultant in rheumatology in July and August, equal to £165,691.50 per year, and £80.74 an hour for a consultant in general surgery who was employed in September and October.

West Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust paid £21 per hour for an IT consultant and £15.50 per hour for a creditor clerk between May and September.

In Staffordshire, the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust paid £91.98 for a locum consultant in A&E in September, a rate that would equal £179,361 per year, and £88.97 per hour to a locum consultant in dermatology in October – equal to more than £170,000 a year.

Worcestershire PCT regularly paid rates of more than £70 per hour for nursing staff – and even paid one agency nurse an hourly rate of £81.85 in May – equivalent to an annual wage of £159,607.50.

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust paid £66.11 per hour for a specialist registrar and £52.53 per hour for middle grade doctor – both equivalent to annual salaries of more than £100,000.

The data did not show whether the workers came from privately-run agencies or from NHS Professionals, a non-profit agency set up by the Government to provide flexible staff. A spokeswoman for the Department of Health said spending on agency staff had been reduced year on year: