George Eliot relies on agency staff for A&E

July board papers reveal that agency spend accounts for 42 per cent, 39 per cent and 22 per cent of spending on A&E, acute medicine and care of the elderly respectively.

However, “in A&E, four additional posts were created at budget setting to be paid for at NHS rates out of monies previously used for agency doctors in posts which have now been recruited to.

“Unfortunately these posts are similar to those that have produced longstanding vacancies and have themselves been filled with agency doctors. The division is currently reviewing its recruitment strategy for these posts.”

Agency spend as a percentage of the total pay bill fell from 13.8 per cent in May to 12.3 per cent in June, but remained above trajectory.