§ Mr. Spearingasked the Secretary of State for Social Services if he will take steps to maintain central records of the fees paid by the National Health Service to agencies supplying qualified doctors, nurses, and auxiliary staff; and if he will make estimates of the comparable cost to the service on the basis that staff were directly available.
315W
§ Mr. AlisonNo: we expect hospital authorities to have regard to relative costs in using nursing agencies and I do not think the work involved in centralising records would be justified. In many cases there is little difference in cost between agency and directly employed nurses of similar grade when account is taken of the paid sick leave, holiday and superannuation provisions for the latter. Very few agency nursing auxiliaries are employed by hospitals, and as regards doctors I would refer the hon. Member to my reply to him on 28th October.—[Vol. 823, c.457–8.]