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NHS 'Must Deliver' On Patient Care And Waste

NHS bosses have been urged by Jeremy Hunt to focus on finding efficiencies and patient care rather than complain about a lack of funds.

The Health Secretary hit out at the NHS saying the Government has provided the extra funding requested by its chief executive and now wants the health service to "deliver its side of the bargain" by eliminating waste.

"Simon Stevens (NHS England Chief Executive) said the NHS needed an extra £8bn by 2020 and the Government has invested that.

"Now the NHS must deliver its side of the bargain for patients by eliminating waste, helped by the controls on spending we're putting in place," said Mr Hunt, who also promised a crackdown on "rip off" staffing agency fees.

"Expensive staffing agencies are quite simply ripping off the NHS.

"It's outrageous that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by companies charging up to £3,500 a shift for a doctor.

"The NHS is bigger than all of these companies, so we'll use that bargaining power to drive down rates and beat them at their own game."

The Department of Health said the total cost of staffing agencies was £3.3bn last year - more than was spent on all 22 million A&E admissions.

Mr Hunt also complained about £600m spent on management consultants.

New rules will set a maximum hourly rate for agency doctors, ban the use of agencies that are not approved, put a cap on agency spending in NHS trusts with financial difficulties and require approval for consultancy contracts over £50,000.

But Labour said the Conservatives had caused the problem in the first place.

Andy Burnham, the shadow health secretary and front-runner for the party leadership, said: "Jeremy Hunt is trying to pull the wool over people's eyes by acting as if the £3bn agency (cost) is a bill he has suddenly discovered.

"The truth is that it is a problem created by Tory mismanagement of the NHS."

Mr Burnham added a decision to cut 6,000 nursing posts meant the NHS had no choice but to turn to agencies.

The only answer was to recruit more nurses and create more training places, he said.