Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the Royal College of Nursing research that shows the NHS agency nurse bill will reach £1 billion in 2014/15, said:

“The over-reliance on agency staff is not just wasteful of NHS finances but it can also damage staff morale and result in poorer patient care.

"Nurses who’ve had a pay freeze for years will find it galling that the agency bill is going through the roof.

"The NHS reorganisation threw nurse training into chaos. We warned the Government it would be a false economy to cut training places and that is proved by the unprecedented use of agencies and recruitment from overseas.

"David Cameron has left the NHS seriously short of the nurses it needs. Labour’s plans to bring through a new generation of home-grown nurses will improve care and bring down the agency bill. We will invest £2.5 billion extra each year to recruit 20,000 extra nurses and increase training places too. The Government needs to find a credible way to bring down the agency bill and it should match our plans.”

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