Justin Madders, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, responding to new plans to reduce the amount the NHS spends on agency staffing, said: 

“This Government’s disastrous inability to plan the NHS workforce has left patients with dangerously understaffed services and left hospitals to rely on expensive agency solutions instead.

“Short-sighted decisions including the pay cap and cuts to training and bursaries have in the long term ended up costing the NHS billions as hospitals pay thousands of pounds a day to staffing agencies for cover. What’s more, there is a big human impact for staff who are expected to carry out unpredictable shifts, often at short notice for months on end.

“It should be a priority for the new Health Secretary to sort this out but instead we know that a workforce strategy has been repeatedly delayed. The Government must bring forward a sustainable, long term workforce plan that gets enough permanent staff in place to deliver safe services for patients.”