Stand-in A&E doctors costing West Midlands hospitals £4m
Spending on stand-in doctors in A&E has soared at some West Midland hospitals – with the bill standing at more than £4 million a year.
Bosses today said the expense was necessary to cover a UK shortage of skilled consultants.
The biggest bill was for Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust, where the figure has quadrupled in four years to more than £2.3 million.
The trust, which runs A&E departments at Sandwell and City hospitals, spent £588,456 in 2009/10, which leapt to £2,357,347 in 2012/13.
Jyotveer Gill, a spokesman for the trust said the outlay was needed to overcome a national shortage of people with sufficient experience. He said: "We use long-term locums to combat a national shortage and we value their skills and experience.
"We are determined to reduce the use of short-term locums in order to improve the reliability of care. Expenditure and use is tracked at our monthly public trust board meetings.
"We are immensely proud of the substantial improvement in the quality and timeliness of care being achieved in our A&Es this year."
At the Royal Wolverhampton Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs New Cross Hospital, spending increased from £44,205 to £194,762 in the same time frame.
At Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Kidderminster Hospital, bosses' spending went up from £535,398 to £1,512,188.
The bill at Walsall Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Manor Hospital, was however reduced from £456,012 to £221,433.
The Labour party uncovered the figures and said it showed that while waiting times are repeatedly missed nationwide, NHS Trusts are actually spending more than ever to provide the service.
Andy Burnham MP, Labour's Shadow Health Secretary, said: "The full consequences of David Cameron's disastrous re-organisation are now being felt across the NHS. He has left it with a dangerous shortage of A&E doctors and a bill for locums which is spiralling out of control."
Nationally, the data showed that spending on locums was £83.3 million last year, a rise from £52 million in 2009/10.
Agency doctors are employed for almost one in 10 consultant shifts and up to one in six more junior posts, the figures revealed
A locum can earn £1,500 a shift, more than four times what it would cost to employ a permanent doctor in the same role.
