YORK Hospital Trust has spent £13.3 million on temporary doctors and nurses in seven months - almost as much as it spent on temporary staff in the space of last year.

Between April and October this year, the trust spent £6.4 million on temporary nurses working almost 144,000 hours, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act. One nurse working on a bank holiday Monday cost an hourly rate of £131 to work in A&E at York Hospital.

Over the same seven month period the trust spent £6.9 million on temporary doctors working over 51,000 hours, with the highest hourly rate of £200 paid for a consultant neurologist at York Hospital.

Spending on agency staff at the trust has risen over recent years as it has struggled to recruit doctors and nurses to certain roles - a problem which has been seen nationally.

In 2013/14 York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust spent a total of £9.2 million on temporary doctors and nurses, rising to £13.5 million in 2014/15.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said the high levels of spending are due to the "immense pressure" being put on the NHS.

Sarah Dodsworth, regional director for the RCN in Yorkshire and the Humber, said: “Workforce cuts, cuts to nurse training places, years of pay restraint and attacks on terms and conditions have made retention and recruitment difficult for trusts.

“At the same time, trusts have been increasing staffing levels to cope with the increasing demand, but are being forced to turn to expensive agencies because the nurse numbers simply aren’t there.

“This has brought us to a situation where big trusts like York are being forced to spend a large portion of their over-stretched budget on temporary nursing staff.

"It is now time for serious workforce investment and sensible, long-term workforce planning at a national level.”

York's MPs differed in solutions to the matter with Rachael Maskell, Labour MP for York Central, emphasising that the figures are indicative of deeper problems in the NHS and not the fault of the trust.

She said: "With a national crisis in doctors, nurses and other health professions and increased demands on the service, the hospital is left with no choice but to use agency staff.

"Last week we heard how cuts were to be introduced to nursing staff in training, this heightening the crisis... A 15 per cent real term pay cut to nurses, making doctors work for less later into the night, and changes to the pension scheme makes staff want to work for agencies as they get to work at the job they enjoy without the stress.

"The NHS is in crisis, and it is time the Secretary of State for Health started addressing the causes of this crisis rather than blaming others for it."

Conservative MP for York Outer Julian Sturdy said the figures are "very concerning" and said the problem of extortionate agency fees must be tackled.

From April, NHS trusts will not be able to pay more than 55 per cent more to agencies than it costs to pay a member of staff for a shift.

Mr Sturdy said: "I welcome the recent introduction of a spending cap... While I would argue that that this measure does not go far enough, it is expected to save £1 billion over the next three years, therefore I believe it is a step in the right direction."

He said replacing direct funding with loans for new students would creating up to 10,000 new training places over the course of the Parliament.

A spokesperson for York Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, said it is acknowledged it has vacancies and has struggled to recruit in some areas for some time.

They said: "The Francis report into standards at Mid Staffs made recommendations for trusts to increase their staffing levels, which has meant that we have had to recruit more people.

"All NHS organisations use temporary staff to meet the changing needs of the service and peaks and troughs in activity, or to cover short term sickness and vacancies. We need to have some degree of flexibility within our workforce and using temporary staff allows us to do this."

The trust said if it needed to cover shifts it offers them to its own staff and then to its in-house nurse bank.

They added: "We have brought the nurse bank in-house for the whole trust, which not only reduces our costs but also means that the staff who fill the shifts know the organisation and its processes. This is because the bank is made up of our own staff who for many reasons might want to work additional shifts."

A comprehensive recruitment campaign targetting local universities has resulted in the recruitment of more than 70 newly qualified nurses, they said.

Last month it was announced that front-line NHS services in England will get a £3.8 billion above-inflation cash injection next year, amid mounting fears about the pressures they face.