THE government has announced measures to clamp down on "rip-off" staffing agencies used by the NHS to plug gaps in nursing and doctor rotas.

The move comes after two of the district's health trusts in the district revealed big rises in agency staffing costs earlier this year.

The change will set a maximum hourly rate for temporary staff and cap the amount trusts that are struggling financially can spend.

Agency staff bills cost the NHS £3.3 billion last year, more than the cost of all 22 million A&E admissions combined – while spending on agency nurses by health trusts in the Bradford district soared by more than a quarter in the past three years.

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Airedale NHS Foundation Trust saw its agency staffing costs rise from £166,283 for July to September in 2012 to £278,223 in the same period last summer – a jump of 67 per cent.

In addition the spend on agency nurses at Bradford District Care Trust hit more than £1m last summer, rising 49 per cent from £685,000 in 2012 to £1,023,000 in the second quarter of the last financial year.

By contrast, though, the figures for Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust showed a drop of 50 per cent, from a high of £295,220 in the summer of 2012 to £148,964 last year.

The clampdown announced by Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt will see strict new rules introduce a maximum hourly rate for agency doctors and nurses, ban the use of agencies that are not approved, and put a cap on total agency staff spending for each NHS trust in financial difficulty.

Agency doctors are currently paid up to £3,500 per shift while the total UK bill for management consultants was more than £600 million last year.

Mr Hunt said: "Expensive staffing agencies are quite simply ripping off the NHS. It's outrageous that taxpayers are being taken for a ride by companies charging up to £3,500 a shift for a doctor. The NHS is bigger than all of these companies, so we'll use that bargaining power to drive down rates and beat them at their own game."