Watch more of our videos on Shots!
and live on Freeview channel 276

The NHS could free up Â£480m a year to reinvest in services if trusts filled temporary vacancies with workers from their own 'staff banks' instead of using expensive agencies, a report has said.

Agency workers including doctors and nurses cost on average of 20 per cent more than those from the NHS’s list of staff who on flexible contracts, despite doing the same job.

The health regulator NHS Improvement has called on all hospitals to only use agencies as a last resort.

It said bank staff tend to come from internal pools of workers who are already employees of the NHS trust and have agreed to work flexible shifts.

Because bank staff generally work within the NHS trust, their use increases the likelihood of a patient being treated by the same healthcare professional throughout their stay in hospital.

The five most expensive locum doctors cost the NHS more than £2m a year.

One agency has been charging up to £480 an hour for one consultant and £200 for a further five, compared with £76.10 which is what the NHS would expect to pay if they came from the trusts’ own banks.

Ending NHS reliance of agency staff could save Â£480m a year, says regulator