The cost of hiring stand-ins to plug gaps could have paid for nearly 3,000 experienced staff, says the royal college David Jones/PA:Press AssociationThe NHS spent almost £100 million on stand-in midwives last year, with the figure for England 20 per cent higher than in the year before. Jon Skewes, director of policy at the Royal College of Midwives, said that the money could have paid for 4,391 newly qualified midwives or 2,731 more experienced staff. Years of pay freezes were blamed for driving NHS midwives away, adding to pressure on Philip Hammond, the chancellor, to promise health workers a pay rise in next month’s budget. The NHS spent £2.9 billion on private agency workers in 2016-17, down from £3.6 billion the year before after pay caps were imposed on nurses, doctors and midwives. Much of the fall was due to the NHS switching from external agencies to…

Source: The Times October 31, 2017 00:22 UTC