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The NHS is spending millions on private paramedics as it faces a “workforce crisis”, it has emerged.

Spending on agency workers has soared by 40% in a year to more than £3.6million, according to official data.

In some areas, the NHS is so short-staffed it is paying £30 an hour for agency paramedics – around double the basic NHS rate.

Last night, the College of Paramedics slammed the Government’s “lack of investment”. And Unison’s national ambulance officer Alan Lofthouse said: “Years of underfunding are without a doubt to blame.

(Image: Getty)

“As fast as paramedics are trained, staff are leaving for less stressful, better-paid jobs. The service is like a colander. Until the Government invests for the long-term and stops choosing the expensive quick fix of agencies, trusts will continue to struggle and patients will keep losing out.”

Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth said: “It’s astonishing that ambulance bosses are having to spend so much more on temporary staff to keep the service running.”

The East of England Ambulance Service spent £2.3million on agency cover for frontline paramedics in 2016/17 – 47 times more than the year before. Figures obtained by Labour under Freedom of Information laws show there are now 863 NHS paramedic posts vacant across the UK – nearly one in 10.

(Image: E+)

In total, ambulance services spent £3,691,858.84 on agency paramedics in 2016/17, up 40% on the £2,630,051.49 in 2015/16.

This month, the Mirror revealed the number of patients waiting over an hour in ambulances at A&E doubled since 2014, hitting 111,524 last year.

Labour called for more cash in the Budget tomorrow.

Mr Ashworth said: “The Tories have created a workforce crisis and it’s patients paying the price. Ministers need to get a grip.”

Martin Berry of the College of Paramedics added: “[We] continue to be concerned by the lack of investment into pressured services.” However, the Department of Health said Labour’s figures were misleading, adding: “These figures don’t compare like with like.

“In the last year we have supported the NHS to save £700million on agency staff spending and between July 2016 and July 2017 there were 454 more paramedics in the NHS.”

East of England Ambulance Service blamed a shortage of paramedics.

A spokeswoman added: “Recruiting trained staff is challenging.”

(Image: PA)

There’s a crisis across the NHS and Ministers should lift the pay cap

By Labour's John Ashworth

Labour's new analysis published in the Mirror shows the astonishing amount that ambulance bosses are having to spend on temporary staff to keep the service running.

Briefings have suggested the Government might give a pay rise to nurses but not to other health workers – this just won’t wash.

There’s a crisis across the NHS and Ministers should lift the pay cap for all public sector workers. So this week, Chancellor Philip Hammond must finally take action and give the NHS the funding it needs.

At the election, Labour promised immediate investment and explained how we would pay for it. After seven years of Tory Government, NHS finances face collapse. Hospitals are £1.5billion in the red after the first six months of the financial year.

Philip Hammond dismisses NHS experts calling for more resources as predicting Armageddon. In the same way he thinks no one is unemployed in Tory Britain he is also clueless about the real state of the NHS.

The experts are doing their job, reminding the Tories there is a crisis. It’s time Ministers did theirs and gave the NHS the funding it needs.