Medical agencies trying to poach doctors to do NHS locum work are offering £5,000 Rolex watches and luxury holidays for referrals, it emerged last night.
The tactics have sparked outrage because the health service is struggling to fill 93,000 vacancies while also trying to clear a backlog of nearly six million patients awaiting treatment.
The NHS is already spending £6billion a year on locum doctors and nurses – some of whom are paid a staggering £4,000 a shift.
The huge payments – and incentives – are being used to encourage full-time staff to switch to locum shifts.
In return for referring a colleague, Pertemps Medical is entering doctors into a draw, with the first prize a Rolex watch or luxury holiday worth £5,000.
Tim Watts, 62, chairman of Pertemps recuitment agency, next to a luxury vintage car
Runners-up receive the latest iPad from Apple. Rivals of the recruitment firm are offering £250 Amazon vouchers for referrals or as much £1,300 in cash. The rewards were condemned last night by a Conservative MP who is also an NHS hospital doctor.
‘The NHS needlessly pays out over £6billion a year in agency and locum doctor costs,’ said Dan Poulter, MP for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich.
‘Unfortunately this is another example of the parasitic behaviour of locum agencies who charge the NHS eye-watering commissions for supplying doctors who may only work a shift of a few hours.
‘It is important that hospitals do more to incentivise their own, existing staff, to cover any vacant shifts that may occur – for example by paying a little more, which would still be much less than the cost of using a locum agency.
‘In the longer term the Government must fund the necessary increase in the number of doctors in training.’
Some NHS trusts have clubbed together to set up online staff banks through which they can cover gaps in shifts without resorting to agencies.
Locum agencies insist they save the health service money by sparing it having to cover national insurance contributions, pensions or sick pay.
Even before the pandemic, the NHS was heavily reliant on locums, with almost one in five doctors holding
