A shortage of Army doctors and nurses is forcing the Ministry of Defence to employ hundreds of temporary civilian medics at an average rate of more than £700 a day. At least £8 million was spent on locums last year to cover more than 12,000 shifts left short by the manning crisis, new figures have revealed. Dozens of civilian nurses and a neurosurgeon have even been deployed in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan. The figures come amid concern among troops and their families about the reliance on locums as the number of Army doctors declines.
Experienced doctors are leaving the forces and new ones are becoming reluctant to join, partly because they earn less with the Armed Forces than they can make in the NHS.
| Which tells you just how bad it is. |
MP Mike Hancock, a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons Defence Select Committee, said: "There is a real crisis, but this has been there for a long time.
"Unfortunately there is little or nothing they can do. If they could recruit them and keep them they would do it."
The cross-party defence committee recently heard that many doctors were discouraged from joining the forces by pay issues and the likelihood of separation from their family. Brendan McKeating, chairman of the British Medical Association's armed forces committee, said doctors in the military felt they were paid less, particularly since new GP and consultant contracts came in.
GPs can expect to earn 4.8% less in the Army over the course of their careers than they would at home, he told the committee. The Army Families Federation has also raised concerns about the lack of provision of doctors and dentists overseas.
In a letter to Tory peer Lord Astor, Baroness Taylor disclosed that £9,747,000 was spent on contracts under which civilian locums were employed by the MoD in 2006/7. However, £1,266,000 was for contracts that included services other than locums as well. In total, 12,094 days' cover was required.
Up to four nurses have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan at any one time, the total number reaching 54 last year, as well as one civilian neurosurgeon. These deployments accounted for £1,155,000 of the total cost of employing locums.
The MoD said in a statement: "Defence Medical Services have met all the operational requirements placed on them.
"There is no question of British forces deploying on military operations without the appropriate medical support."
It acknowledged a "problem" with manpower shortages, particular in consultant and nurse specialities, but was taking steps to address them. "In the current financial year we have continued to hire a small number of nurses for Iraq and Afghanistan operations and have hired one consultant neurosurgeon in Afghanistan for a three-month period," the MoD added.