BRADFORD Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had to spend almost £20 million on temporary agency staff in the 2015/2016 financial year - a £6m increase on the previous 12 months.

The Trust - which runs Bradford Royal Infirmary and St Luke’s hospitals - said the increase was down to a failure to fill job vacancies in nursing, medical and other speciality posts.

The £19.8m spent by the Trust - up from £13.8m during the 2014/2015 financial year - was spent on employing 432 full time equivalent staff.

The majority of agency staff employed were healthcare assistants and nurses but other temporary roles filled included a registrar and a consultant, a physiotherapist; radiographers and sonographers.

Bradford East Labour MP Imran Hussain has now raised the issue in Parliament.

He described it as a healthcare staffing crisis, and called for the Government to act urgently to tackle what he said were “dangerous hospital staff shortages in Bradford”.

He put the blame at the door of the Department for Health, and criticised the removal of student nursing bursaries.

Mr Hussain added: “The rising cost of temporary staff demonstrates the increasing reliance on them to plug full-time vacancies in the NHS that is stretching already overwhelmed budgets, with hospital bosses across the country forced to choose between maintaining their budgets and ensuring that their hospitals are properly staffed, and it is clear that the Government must urgently act to tackle dangerous staff shortages in hospitals in the district as well as across the country before the problem gets worse.

“Both the British Medical Association and the General Medical Council have raised the serious concerns that they have about risks to patient safety around the use of temporary healthcare staff in hospitals that they are unfamiliar with, and they are concerns that I wholeheartedly agree with as it is both unsustainable and unsafe to continue with using temporary staff in place of permanent staff on a long-term basis, as is currently the case.

“What this ultimately comes down to is a failure by the Government over the past six years to admit that there is an increasing healthcare staff recruitment and retention problem in the NHS, made worse by their cuts to the NHS, attacks on junior doctors, and removal of student nursing bursaries, and if Jeremy Hunt wishes to follow through with his party conference announcement about increasing the number of NHS staff, he must take the step now of reinstating student nursing bursaries and improving conditions for healthcare staff.”

Bradford South Labour MP Judith Cummins said: “The people of Bradford deserve the very best healthcare our NHS can offer," she said.

“Many residents will be concerned to hear about the heavy reliance on agency and temporary staff by their local hospital trust.

“The NHS is facing unprecedented budget pressures due to the decisions by Government.

“Hospitals employing more nurses and healthcare workers is not only better for local people, but also for helping to cut wasteful spending on costly short term workers.

“I will be pressing central Government to take action to improve this unacceptable situation.”

A spokesman for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “In 2015/2016 we saw an increase in agency spend due partly to the investment made in nurse staffing.

“We have had an increase in vacancies across nursing, and despite our best efforts with local, national and international recruitment, we have had difficulty in filling these posts.

“Filling vacancies in medical and other specialities has also been a challenge to us due to shortage of supply which also led to increased agency spend last year.”

“Our preference is always to substantively fill vacancies and we continue to proactively recruit to posts within the Trust.”

In Parliament, Mr Hussain also pointed out that it was not a problem specific to Bradford alone, with net temporary staff expenditure rising nationally by almost 40 per cent, between 2013/14 and 2015/16, to £4.13 billion, representing eight per cent of the total staff expenditure.

Responding to him, Health Minister Philip Dunne said: We recognise, absolutely, that bills for agency staff have become unsustainable, which is why we have taken deliberate action, including by introducing price caps on hourly rates last November, which has had a significant impact on reducing agency costs. In the year to date, agency costs are some £550 million less than they were last year."

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust spent £5.213m in the last financial year - compared with £7.151m in 2014/2015.

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