NHS leaders announce fresh measures to tackle high spending on locum doctors

NHS leaders plan to step up efforts to curb hospital spending on locum doctors after new figures showed that around 100 are each earning more than £200 000 a year from agency work. New measures announced this week by the regulator NHS Improvement (NHSI) include blocking NHS trusts from employing agency workers who hold substantive roles at other trusts and clamping down on the use of personal service companies, which can often reduce agency workers’ tax bills.1 The regulator will also push for greater transparency on pay and is considering asking trusts to publish rates paid to high earning locum doctors earning over £150 000. Outlining the plans in a letter to NHS chief executives on 17 February the NHSI chief executive, Jim Mackey, said that high rates paid for temporary …