Agency nurses at Fairfield General Hospital's trust were paid an average of more than double that of NHS staff, according to data released under the Freedom of Information Act.

An average of more than £1.3 million a month was spent on agency nurses between April and December last year.

In December 2022, agency nurses and midwives earned an average of £52.23 per hour at the Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, compared to an average rate of £25.39 per hour for NHS bank nurses.

The Northern Care Alliance runs hospitals including Fairfield General, Royal Oldham, Salford Royal, and the Rochdale Infirmary.

The trust said the disparity was because agency staff receive a higher rate of pay as they are contracted at short notice, and the priority is to keep safe staffing levels.

The NHS bank is a system by which NHS staff can book to work extra shifts beyond their contracted hours.

Agency nurses earned a maximum hourly wage of £101.88 per hour in December, compared to a maximum of £58.60 for NHS bank staff.

On the other end of the scale, NHS bank staff were earning a minimum rate of £12.88 an hour, compared to agency rates which bottomed out at £22.32.

The full data spreadsheet can be analysed here.

The figures come one month after hospital bosses cut pay for NHS bank staff at A&Es and acute medical units within the hospital trust.

In total, an average of more than £1.3 million was spent each month on agency nurses in the Northern Care Alliance from April to December 2022.

An average of just over £4 million was spent monthly on NHS bank shifts, and £19.7 million on regularly contracted nurses for the same period.

Agency nurses were relied upon for an average of more than 25,300 hours of shifts each month, compared to more than 150,000 hours for NHS bank shifts and 712,000 hours of contracted nurses.

Overall, agency staff represented 2.9 per cent of nursing hours, but received 5.4 per cent of total nursing pay over the period from April to December.

Bank nurses worked 17 per cent of nursing hours but received 16 per cent of pay, and contracted nurses worked 80.1 per cent of nursing hours but earned just 78.6 per cent of pay.

Healthcare scientists also affected

It wasn’t just nurses that were affected by the disparity.

Healthcare scientists at the trust also received differing pay based on whether they were agency or bank staff.

Agency healthcare scientists at the trust were paid up to a maximum of £120.70 per hour in December, compared to a maximum of just £42.19 per hour for bank healthcare scientists.

Disparities could be seen in some other staff categories, such as estates and facilities staff, and admin staff.

Hospital bosses respond

Nicky Clarke, chief of people at the Northern Care Alliance, said: “The NHS continues to face challenges around staffing levels and like other trusts, we work with agencies to ensure that we have the necessary staff required to deliver safe care for our patients and service users. 

“Pay for agency staff tends to be at higher rates to reflect the fact those colleagues were asked to work at our organisation at short notice for a very short period of time.

“Our priority is to make sure we have safe staffing levels that allow us to give our patients the care and attention that they need.”