The Scottish health boards that have spent the most on temporary nurses and consultants

The Scottish Government is being told to ‘urgently improve NHS recruitment’.

More than £900 million has been spent on agency nurses and locum doctors in Scotland’s NHS since 2019.

The SNP is now being told to “urgently improve NHS recruitment”, after new figures showed £521m was spent on agency nurses and £400m on locum consultants in the past five years.

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The figures, obtained by Scottish Labour through a Freedom of Information request, show NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde spent £103,006,920 on agency nurses between 2019/20 and September 2024.

Jeff Moore/Press Association.

A further £78,976,182 was spent on agency nurses by NHS Lanarkshire, £58,313,616.31 by NHS Lothian, £54,847,000 by NHS Grampian, £47,453,985.77 by NHS Tayside, £42,250,199 by NHS Fife and £41,781,219 by NHS Highland.

A total of £37,465,765 was spent by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, £31,505,456.44 by NHS Forth Valley, and £7,361,354.62 by NHS Shetland. The spend was rounded out by £7,152,774.20 by NHS Orkney, £6,053,322.50 by NHS Borders, £3,904,250.51 by NHS Dumfries and Galloway, and £1,191,618.06 by NHS Western Isles.

Jackie Baillie, Scottish Labour’s health spokeswoman, said: “These figures show the NHS is under huge pressure and is haemorrhaging money because of the SNP’s failure to recruit and retain frontline staff.

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“After nearly 18 years of SNP incompetence, staff are demoralised and exhausted as vacancies are not being filled - and it’s costing the taxpayer millions.

“Scottish Labour will ensure that Scotland’s NHS has a ten-year workforce plan that creates domestic medical and nursing training places, values nurses, doctors and all NHS staff, and meets the needs of future generations of patients.

“Scotland’s NHS needs a new direction and Scottish Labour is ready to deliver it.”

The figures reveal just over £400m was spent on locum consultant doctors, with NHS Dumfries and Galloway shelling out the most between 2019/20 and September last year at £64,323,817.

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A further £60,924,000 was spent on locum consultants by NHS Grampian, £51,003,592 by NHS Fife, £39,784,864 by NHS Highland, £39,152,650.89 by NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, and £34,580,226 by NHS Lanarkshire.

This is on top of the £29,583,918.32 spent by NHS Tayside, £27,045,347 by NHS Ayrshire and Arran, £15,364,064.54 by NHS Orkney, £13,951,182 by NHS Lothian, £9,543,130 by NHS Forth Valley, £8,813,258 by NHS Borders, and £5,935,205.67 by NHS Western Isles.

NHS Shetland did not provide figures on its locum consultant spend.

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Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie BaillieScottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie
Scottish Labour deputy leader Dame Jackie Baillie | Press Association

A Scottish Government spokesman said 96 per cent of nursing staff costs came from NHS substantive and bank staff in 2023/24.

The spokesman said: “NHS Scotland’s staffing pay bill is over £10 billion a year, with spending on agency nursing a tiny fraction of this.

“The use of temporary staff in an organisation as large and complex as NHS Scotland will always be required to ensure vital service provision during times of unplanned absence, sickness and increased unforeseen activity.

“It is, however, critical that we seek to secure best value whenever we are delivering services within NHS Scotland, allowing us to maximise the impact that our investment has on the quality and availability of patient care.

“Accordingly, we are working with colleagues across NHS Scotland to explore how we can reduce our reliance on agency staffing.”

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