Private employment agencies costing the NHS ‘hundreds of millions’
Short staffed UK hospitals are being forced to resort to using employment agencies to shore up the numbers.
It has been reported that agency doctors are being paid up to £15,000 per week.
Hospitals spent more than £2 billion on locum doctors in three years – a sum which could have paid the wages of 32,000 junior doctors or 10,000 consultants over the period.
Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter, a capitalist scum-bag, has blamed the EU’s working time directive (WTD) which set a maximum 48-hour-week for doctors. What the dumb-ass forgets is that the UK has an opt-out option for the agreement and that Doctors can legally work up to 56 hours per week.
By attacking the European Working Time Directive (EWTD) he seems to think that it’s a better idea to have life-saving doctors working more than 48 hours a week than, for example, employing more Doctors and medical staff.
Do we really want tired doctors trying to carry out life-saving actions? Do we want to pay private companies billions for staff?
No! Less hours, refreshed staff, employed directly by the NHS.
