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Private nursing agencies are paying workers less than half what they charge the NHS to hire them.

We found one raked in £71.53 an hour for busy overnight shifts but the nurse pocketed just £34.

Another hospital paid the same agency £864.77 for a 12-hour day shift but the nurse got £387.

The agency, Thornbury Nursing, is owned offshore in the Caribbean and is controlled by a private equity fund run by a major Tory donor.

It is part of a string of firms specialising in health temping jobs and run by TowerBrook Capital Partners, which raked in nearly £600million in revenue last year.

This makes it one of the biggest beneficiaries of the £2.4billion annual agency bill used to plug the NHS’s staffing crisis. Over 100,000 NHS jobs are empty, including 43,000 nursing posts.

(Image: Alamy Stock Photo)

This makes it one of the biggest beneficiaries of the £2.4billion annual agency bill used to plug the NHS’s staffing crisis. Over 100,000 NHS jobs are empty, including 43,000 nursing posts.

Many nurses are tempted into agency work as they can double earnings but the NHS says it is costing taxpayers an extra half a billion pounds a year.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: “Ministers should be protecting the NHS by building the workforce. Not offering it up as rich pickings for friends of the Tory party.”

From Freedom of Information requests, we found that Thornbury charged some NHS trusts £67.45 to £71.53 an hour for a general registered nurse working a night shift between 2pm and 8am.

According to paysheets on its own website, it paid the same nurse just £34 an hour.

(Image: Getty Images)

For a day shift from 8am to 2pm, Thornbury was paid £53.95 to £57.61 per hour and paid the nurse £30.50. At weekends, between 2pm on Friday and 8am on Monday, Thornbury got £71.45 and gave the nurse £38.50.

One hospital, Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust, paid Thornbury £864.77 for a 12-hour day shift. But the firm stated it paid the nurse just £387.

Even allowing for employers’ national insurance contributions, which could be up to 13.8 per cent, Thornbury kept 49 per cent of the money paid.

The trust, which ended last year with a £6million deficit, used Thornbury 50 times in two months this summer.

Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in Dorset hired Thornbury 754 times in two months last summer, while United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust used the firm 708 times over the same time period.

Thornbury and other agencies are part of Independent Clinical Services Ltd, which made a £41million profit last year.

It is controlled through a string of companies in the UK, the Netherlands and ultimately offshore in the Cayman Islands, according to data from Fame, published by Bureau van Dijk.

Controlling company TowerBrook was founded and is jointly run by Ramez Sousou, who has donated £525,000 to the Tories. Former Conservative Party chairman Lord Feldman sits on its senior advisory board.

ICS said: “For more than thirty years ICS has provided highly skilled and specialised workforce solutions, across the health and social care sectors in the UK, Ireland and the United States.

“ICS Ltd is registered in the UK and pays UK corporation tax on all of its operations.”

Miriam Deakin, policy director of NHS Providers, said: “Trusts have made significant progress bringing down the agency bill.”