NHS spending on temporary nurses hit a new high of £500 million last year, new figures have revealed.

Forum Response: Nestor Healthcare Group

Bill McClimont, director of corporate affairs for the Nestor Healthcare Group, told ePolitix.com: "Temporary staff provide an extremely essential contribution to the NHS. Without such a contribution, the NHS would have grave problems.

"Responsible agencies are working closely with NHS to provide good value in the delivery of temporary staff services. This is especially important in view of current difficulties encountered by NHS Professionals which have been severely criticised by the National Audit Office."

Forum Response: Nursing and Midwifery Council

Kirsty O'Brien, spokeswoman for the Nursing and Midwifery Council, told ePolitix.com: "We acknowledge that the NHS and the independent sector are increasingly reliant on practitioners from overseas as evidence in the number of overseas practitioners re-registering each year has shown."

Forum Response: BUPA

A spokeswoman for BUPA told ePolitix.com: "Behind the announcement today that the NHS spends over £500 million on agency nurses lies the real issue: the UK lacks sufficient numbers of trained nurses and those it does have are not staying in the profession. This is problem shared by both the public and independent sectors.

"There are a number of factors that have led to this situation. For example, pay levels have fallen behind those of other professions and the changing demands of family life require more flexibility in working hours and location than traditional contracts allow.

"This is shown by the fact that approximately 94 percent of nurses leave the profession altogether, rather than move from the public to the independent sector (or vice versa)

"Recognising this problem, BUPA has initiated a number of 'back to nursing schemes' for returning nurses, wherever they want to work. It also makes a big investment in the training and education of its existing staff; particularly in management training and in post-graduate and post-registration courses for clinical and professional staff.

"In 2002, BUPA Hospitals delivered over 2800 days of training to 1600 staff, with courses ranging from management skills to Return to Practice courses. BUPA Care Services ran 12,000 certified courses for subjects such as health and safety, fire training and food hygiene. It also put 1600 people through a mixture of NVQ levels two, three and four. In addition, it provided work placements for NHS nurse trainees as part of their course.

"The government is trying to address this issue through 'Agenda for Change', the outcome of which we await with interest.

"There will always be a demand for the flexibility nursing agencies provide. Hospitals and care homes need quality staff to cover shifts, often at short notice and for varying lengths of time. Some nurses and carers require a flexibility that standard contracts cannot provide.

"At the end of the day, a care home or hospital should be free to manage its staffing requirements according to local need."