Opposition politicians have blasted the Scottish Government following the revelations over the spiralling cost of agency staff within NHS Lanarkshire.
The figures, obtained by Lanarkshire Live through a Freedom of Information request, showed that from April last year until February, a whopping £30.44 million was spent by the health board.
That figure would pay for more than 800 nurses being paid the average nurse salary in Scotland of £37,726.
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Meghan Gallacher, from the Scottish Conservatives, described the figures as “eye watering”.
“While locum doctors and agency staff, of course, have a crucial role to play in the running of our NHS, the SNP’s dire workforce planning has left NHS Lanarkshire with major staffing shortages,” said Ms Gallacher.
“The figures expose the effects of dire workforce planning by successive SNP health secretaries and their failure to recruit enough permanent frontline staff.
“Health boards like NHS Lanarkshire are already under huge financial pressure without having to find more and more money to pay those who ensure shifts are filled.
“We need to urgently see a proper recovery plan from Humza Yousaf to reduce this spending, rather than continuing to rely on his flimsy one which has failed to remobilise our health service.”
Labour’s Monica Lennon noted that agency spending at University Hospital Hairmyres had went up by 175 per cent in the last three financial years.
She added: “This is a shocking increase in public money being spent on expensive agency fees, due to the NHS staffing crisis that continues to get worse under Humza Yousaf’s watch.
“The total agency staffing bill for Lanarkshire’s three hospitals has risen to £64.5 million from an already too high £20 million in 2020.
“It is simply unsustainable and unaffordable for the failure to retain and recruit NHS staff to be managed in this way.
“The Scottish Government should have addressed low pay in the NHS years ago, instead of boosting the profits of agency shareholders.
“It is not the fault of agency healthcare workers. SNP ministers and their Scottish Green government partners must take responsibility and urgently put a proper NHS recovery plan in place.”
Ms Lennon’s Labour colleague, Central Scotland list MSP Mark Griffin said: “The crisis in our NHS, though certainly exacerbated by Covid, has been years in the making.
"NHS workers go above and beyond for patients, but we know that they are overstretched due to staffing shortages. We need a credible, long-term, plan to train and retain the qualified staff our hospitals need.”
Graham Simpson, from the Scottish Tories concluded: “These figures highlight the SNP’s wastefulness and gross mismanagement of health services in Lanarkshire.
“While locum doctors and agency staff, of course, have a crucial role to play in the running of our NHS, the SNP’s dire workforce planning has left NHS Lanarkshire with major staffing shortages.
“Often, this spending on agency staff is merely papering over the cracks because it indicates that permanent staff are completely overwhelmed.”
However, Motherwell and Wishaw SNP MSP Clare Adamson spoke out in defence of the Scottish Government.
She said: “Our health service has been faced with unprecedented disruption.
“These figures are clearly not reflective of normal service and staffing pressures have been exacerbated by a global pandemic and a Brexit that Scotland rejected.
“The imposed removal of freedom of movement has had a demonstrable impact on our ability to recruit staff for our public services and this, coupled with the pandemic, will have driven a rise in agency staff.
“Despite these pressures, extraordinary inflation, and a cost-of-living crisis, the latest Scottish budget provides record funding of over £19 billion for Health and Social Care to help with our pandemic recovery.
“There are undoubtedly tough times ahead, but a renewed SNP administration is set to continue its mission to drive up living standards and public services and mitigate the worst impact of Westminster austerity.”
And East Kilbride SNP MSP Collette Stevenson added: "The NHS in Scotland has a record budget and record staffing levels. Here in Lanarkshire, we’ve got more than 12,000 people working for the NHS – with nearly 1,400 more staff compared to 5 years ago.
“Of course, the impact of the pandemic on our NHS and on NHS workers cannot be underestimated. The Scottish Government’s NHS Recovery Plan sets out key ambitions and actions to be developed and delivered over this Parliament which will address the backlog in care and meet ongoing healthcare needs for people across Scotland.
“The Scottish Government and NHS Lanarkshire are keen to employ even more staff in our NHS. Meanwhile, it is right that Hairmyres Hospital has safe staffing levels and, where necessary, this can result in agency nurses being used.
"Spend on agency staff is about 1.5 per cent of NHS Lanarkshire’s budget, with the majority of temporary staffing coming from staff banks – these are NHS staff, working on NHS terms and conditions.
“From April 2023, the Scottish Government will increase the Health and Social Care budget to over £19 billion, and this rise will support our excellent NHS staff here in East Kilbride and across the country as we continue to recover and reform our NHS to meet people’s healthcare needs.”
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