article_snippet: Short-staffed trusts are forced to pay exorbitant amounts as Short-staffed trusts compete to attract agency medics.
article_snippet: Not all the money went to the doctor as the agency employing them will have taken a sizeable cut.
article_snippet: but ‘on-call’ – where they need to attend only in an emergency.
article_snippet: Three more trusts – the Royal Berkshire in Reading, Derby Hospitals and North Bristol –
article_snippet: As they are generally less experienced and competent than full-time doctors employed by the trust, there is concern that such over-reliance could put patients at risk.
article_snippet: the Heart of England NHS trust is short of A&E doctors partly because staffing levels have not kept pace with the rising number of patients, so trusts have to pay vast amounts to agencies.
article_snippet: Dr Clifford Mann, president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, said: ‘Market forces really are quite extreme currently, with the lack of permanent people to employ.
article_snippet: It means hospitals are desperate to try to find people to fill these slots and are having to pay super premium rates.
article_snippet: the Public Accounts Committee also highlighted how spending on agency staff had soared by a quarter in the past year to £2.6billion .
article_snippet: The Department of Health said:
article_snippet: ‘Since May 2010 we have more than 9,500 extra doctors and nearly 8,500 extra nurses.
article_snippet: we want to reduce reliance on agency staff and soon hospitals that don’t have soon hospitals that do finances in order will have to make significant progress towards halving soon hospitals that do agency spend or risk tough consequences.