Dorset County Hospital has spent millions of pounds on hiring agency staff.

A Freedom of Information request made to Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has revealed that between September 2016 and September 2017, the hospital spent a total of £2,654,351.22, employing doctors and nurses from outside agencies.

That included medical locums, medical agencies, staff from the NHS nurse bank and nursing agencies.

Unite, which has members at the hospital, said it was 'astounded' by the figures, which, it stressed, did not provide the best value for money for patients.

A spokesperson added: “There are times when the use of agency staff is unavoidable but this level of spend clearly shows that DCH needs to recruit far more permanent staff, who will provide better value for money.

“DCH needs to provide urgent reassurance that they will wean themselves off their reliance on agency staff in the very near future.”

Michael Cracknell, UNISON South West regional organiser for Dorset, blamed the hospital's spending habits on government cuts.

He said: “The NHS has too many vacancies and has had little option but to rely on expensive agency support to maintain safe staffing levels.

“Without adequate staffing levels, it’s difficult to balance care with reducing agency spending.

“This money should be put into sustainable health services not stop-gap hiring of agency staff.”

James Price, Campaign Manager at the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Paying well over the odds for one employee is bad enough, but such a high cost clearly shows a cavalier disregard for how taxpayers’ money is spent.

“Taxpayers are struggling to make ends meet and patients are being denied crucial treatment on the grounds of cost is galling when so much is being spent on temp staff.

“The hospital needs to sort out its hiring process to get full-time staff on the books and cut out such eye-watering temp costs.

“The trust’s annual report revealed that it spent £106,619,000 on staff-related costs in for the financial year ending in March 2017, including that spent on agency staff.”

It comes after a report, written by independent health Thinktank, the Kings Fund which revealed that NHS trusts across the country spent between 0.1 per cent to 25.4 per cent of their annual substantive pay on agency staff, with an average of 6.8 per cent.

However, hospital bosses have defended their spending habits.

A spokesperson for Dorset County Hospital said: “We always aim to keep our temporary staffing to a minimum but obviously we have to ensure our wards are safely staffed at all times.

“There is a national shortage of qualified nurses and we do have vacancies.

“We have an ongoing nursing recruitment programme and we hope to be able to fill all our vacancies by the end of the year.”

As previously reported, it comes after statistics from NHS digital revealed that more than 85 per cent of nursing vacancies remain unfilled in the south-west with only 535 of 3,691 vacancies advertised being filled.

The DCH revelation comes after a report, written by independent health thinktank The Kings Fund, which revealed that NHS trusts across the country spent between 0.1 per cent to 25.4 per cent of their annual substantive pay on agency staff, with an average of 6.8 per cent.