Audit Scotland
The NHS in Scotland
could save almost 15 per cent of the money it spends on locum doctors in
hospitals – or about £6 million a year – through better planning and
procurement.
An Audit Scotland report, Using locum doctors in hospitals,
says health boards spend around £47 million a year on locum doctors in
hospitals. Locums are doctors of any grade or specialty who provide
temporary staffing cover at any time. This spending has doubled in the past
decade but, in many cases, health boards are not always clear about why
locum doctors are being hired and how long they are using them for.
Auditor General for Scotland, Robert Black, said:
“Locum doctors have an important role in ensuring
hospitals are adequately staffed and provide good quality patient care around
the clock. In recent years, the demand for locum doctors has risen due to
workforce issues such as increased difficulty in filling vacancies and the
impact of European legislation governing working hours.“Health boards need better information about why and when they use
locum doctors; the grades and specialties of doctors they are hiring as
locums; and whether locum doctors are existing employees or from agencies.
With better information, boards could improve their workforce planning and
use locum doctors more cost-effectively.”
The report also says the NHS
needs to get better at managing the potential risks to patient safety of using
locum doctors. This is particularly important for locum doctors who are hired
through private agencies as they may be unknown to the board and
unfamiliar with the hospital in which they are working.
Health boards across Scotland need to be consistent in the way they
screen and induct locum doctors and the way they manage their performance.
For example, pre-employment checks are not always formalised, induction
arrangements are variable across different health boards, and feedback on
locums’ performance is mainly verbal, with few written assessments or
records. There are no formal systems for sharing information about individual
locum doctors between boards.