Temporary staff cost Walsall Manor Hospital £1.46m in JUST one month

The amount spent on agency, bank and locum staff at Walsall Manor Hospital stood at £1.46 million in July - up from £1.42m in June.

There was a rise in agency costs which increased by £89,000 to £678,000 in July while bank staffing costs reduced by £26,000 to £435,000 and locum staffing costs reduced by £24,000 to £347,000.

Bosses have been taking steps to reduce the amount of money used on temporary workers with a recruitment drive launched for new nurses.

A report to the trust board, which meets tomorrow, said temporary staffing overall reduced, however agency usage increased in emergency care.

It said: "Temporary staffing costs increased by £40k in July to £1.461m. Agency staffing increased by £89k to £678k in month mainly due to medical and nursing staffing costs.

"Bank expenditure reduced by £26k to £435k."

According to the report, there was an overspend in nursing.

The report said: "Nursing overspent in month by £42k mainly due to agency nursing in emergency care.

"The budget top slice for overseas recruitment costs, A&E and theatres are resulting in reported year to date overspends."

The cost of temporary workers dropped to the lowest level in more than a year in June.

In May, the cost stood at £1.636m - the highest it has been in the past four months.

The hospital has been under growing demand from patients and faced with increasing costs.

It has been battling a rise in emergency admissions over the past two years.

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust dealt with 35,056 emergency inpatients in 2014/15, compared to 34,036 the year before.

In 2012/13, the trust dealt with just 25,184 emergency inpatients, according to the figures published in the trust's annual report.

It was forced to declare a major incident in January due to the demand on resources.

There has also been a significant increase in the number of women choosing to give birth at the Manor Hospital or the midwifery-led unit in the town centre, following the closure of maternity units in both Sandwell and Stafford.

The trust saw a total of 4,672 births during 2014, compared to 3,666 in 2009.