Burnley and Blackburn hospitals spend £1m. a month to employ agency staff

Between April and August East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust spent more than £5m. on filling vacancies with agency staff.

The majority of agency workers were recruited for the surgical division, followed by the family care division and medical division.

The latest meeting of the Trust board heard a large number of registrars are agency workers.

Medical Director Dr Geraint Jones said: “We’ve got to really think now how we deliver emergency care and we’ve got to rethink the way we deliver out-of-hours care.”

Chief executive Mrs Diane Whittingham added: “The only way to address it is to change the way we work. At the moment there is no shortage of people applying to medical school.”