Speaking on the day that the government has introduced caps on NHS spend on agency staff, following a final decision taken on Friday, just five working days after the close of the official consultation to which many recruitment agencies responded with concerns, REC director of policy Tom Hadley says:
"As of today, doctors and nurses who provide crucial front-line services to NHS patients – often at short notice and during unsociable hours – are having their pay cut. This cannot be right and with increased winter pressure on the NHS soon to come, it puts patients’ health at risk. This policy will drive skilled professionals out of the NHS and make the current staff shortages even worse.
“We recognise that costs must be managed but the focus should be on better workforce planning as well as attracting and retaining more people to work in the NHS. These plans have not been thought through and are being rushed in at the worst time of year. Well-managed, flexible working arrangements which have been used in the NHS for decades enable peaks in demand and staff shortages to be dealt with seamlessly so patients get the high-quality health care they deserve.
“It's clear that Monitor and the Secretary of State for Health don't really understand why locum doctors and nurses chose to work this way. The idea that by cutting what they earn they will clamour to return to the NHS as permanent employees is wrong. Inevitably some will go to work overseas, others will move into the private sector where the caps won’t apply and some will find flexible and better paid employment in another sector all together. The real impact is that we could see the care of millions of patients who depend on the NHS being put at risk over the coming months. We say think again and postpone the next stage of these illogical changes before it’s too late.”