West Middlesex Hospital agency staff spending still to high - Dakers & Khalsa

4.13.34pm BST (GMT +0100) Mon 4th Apr 2005

Andrew Dakers outside West Middlesex Hospital. Andrew said, "spending on agency staff is still too high"

Figures on West Middlesex University NHS Trust gathered this week by Liberal Democrat Prospective MPs Andrew Dakers (Brentford & Isleworth) and Satnam Kaur Khalsa (Feltham & Heston) show just how much of our public money is still being wasted on agency nursing and medical staff. Two years have past since Liberal Democrat MP Paul Burstow warned the Labour Government about this worrying trend.

In 2003, Paul Burstow asked Tony Blair:

"How many more billions will be wasted before the Government wakes up and smells the revolt?

"The percentage of doctors and nurses are so alienated by NHS working practices and pay, their services are now only available to hospitals through employment agencies who can negotiate better terms on their behalf."

In the late 1990s, West Middlesex's expenditure on non-NHS nursing staff was well below £600,000, but by 2002 it had rocketed to just under £3 million. Today it remains around the £1.5 million mark, while the expenditure on agency medical staff (e.g. locum doctors), negligible in 1997, is now well over the £1 million mark.

In response to these statistics Andrew Dakers, Liberal Democrat Prospective MP for Brentford and Isleworth, commented:

"Although West Middlesex's figures for 2004-5 indicate the situation is improving, the fact is that spending on agency staff is still too high. The figures for non-NHS medical staff are particularly troubling, and more hard work needs to be done if we are to reverse this trend and change working practices. Labour has failed patients by putting targets first, but we cannot allow this to continue."

The rise in agency staff employed in our hospitals also presents a serious challenge to nursing staff in tackling the MRSA virus. The high staff turn-over means a rapid loss of skills and little sense of staff identity and responsibility with hospitals and patients.

Andrew Dakers said:

"The need to address the issue is urgent if the hospital is going to win the battle against MRSA and improve patient care."

Satnam Kaur Khalsa, Prospective MP for Feltham & Heston, said:

"The NHS is far too reliant on agency nurses. Millions of pounds in public money are being wasted on commissions when we should be investing in more permanent staff to fill the vacancies in our hospitals and promote best practice."

LIB DEM HEALTH PROPOSALS

• The Liberal Democrats would free the NHS from Government meddling. This will let NHS staff get on with their jobs and mean cleaner hospitals, as well as shorter waiting times and more personalised care.

• The Liberal Democrats will concentrate on keeping people healthy not just treating the sick. Prevention is as important as cure. This means a ban on smoking in enclosed public places and targeted health MOTs.

• Liberal Democrats believe older people deserve a fair and dignified old age. They will therefore scrap the unfair charges for basic care such as feeding, dressing and washing.

• The Conservatives would divert money out of the NHS to subsidise private operations for the wealthy - we would use it to improve frontline NHS care.