Scottish Labour pledges to seek a cap on NHS spending on agency staff
Scottish Labour is to seek a cap on NHS spending on agency staff in order to cut 'soaring' costs.
The party said it would try to amend the government's forthcoming safe staffing legislation to curb the amount of profit private agencies make from the health service.
Labour analysis of official statistics shows that spending on agency nursing and midwifery staff has risen from £3.9 million in 2011/12 to £24.5 million in 2016/17.
Health spokesman Anas Sarwar MSP said: `The soaring costs of agency spending for nursing and midwifery jobs in the past 10 years shows the absolute mess the SNP government has made of workforce planning.
`It was Nicola Sturgeon as health secretary who forced through cuts to training places for nurses and midwives. We are seeing the effects of that now with a 522% increase in agency spending since.
`This cannot go on. The health service is our most valuable public service - it shouldn't be boosting the profit margins of private companies.
`Richard Leonard has pledged that the next Scottish Labour government will legislate to cap the profits of private agencies in the health service. If the SNP wants to start fixing this workforce crisis it should work with Labour to deliver this cap in the safe staffing Bill.'
In response, Health Secretary Shona Robison said spending on nursing agency staff was just 0.4% of the overall nursing budget.
She said: `The majority of temporary shifts are filled from the NHS staff bank.
`There are also more than 35,000 nurses registered on the staff bank who are NHS staff on NHS contracts working at NHS rates of pay.'
Ms Robison said the new safe staffing legislation `will ensure appropriate staffing for high quality care, and enable further improvements in workforce planning, meaning we will have the right number of staff, with the right skills, in place across health and social care'.