Published: Monday, 22nd February, 2010 4:34pm

Why do some nurses cost us £60 an hour?

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OUR health board are shelling out up to £60 per hour to employ agency nurses - despite having more than 3,000 nursing staff on their own books.

NHS Ayrshire and Arran been slammed in a report after the figures revealed that the nurses cost more per hour than First Minister Alex Salmond, whose hourly rate works out at £41 when his salary is based on a normal working week.

But executive nursing director Fiona McQueen defended the figures to the Times , after they were released following a Freedom of Information request.

She said the number of agency nurses hired was down around two thirds of what it was five years ago and that NHS Ayrshire and Arran, who currently employ approximately 3.275 fully qualified nurses, exhausted all other possibilities before using agencies.

She said: "Before going to agencies for nursing staff we would use our internal nurse bank and offer extra hours to existing part time workers."

See the Times for the full story.