Ambulance trusts in the UK are now subject to NHS caps and controls on agency spend as the final round of NHS caps on agency spend will be introduced to ambulance trusts and ambulance foundation trusts on 1 July, according to the REC (Recruitment and Employment Confederation.)

In what has been labelled an effort to “ease the financial pressure facing the NHS”, the Secretary of State for Health, Jeremy Hunt, announced back in 2015 measures to reduce the use of agency nurses and locum doctors by capping pay rates so that they mirror those of substantive, permanent staff, and by ensuring all procurement is now via an approved framework agreement.

Since that announcement, the REC has stated that it has seen caps introduced across NHS trusts and foundation trusts, with mixed results. According to the REC, 79% of healthcare recruitment agencies told them in a recent survey that they are working with NHS trusts who are having to routinely break the caps.

Meanwhile, 87% of healthcare agencies also reported that they have really struggled to find staff since the caps were introduced.

Following a Freedom of Information request, the BBC reported that the caps are being breached more than 50,000 times in a week. And in its recent review of NHS Clinical Staffing in England, the Public Accounts committee commented:

The REC states that it is concerned that these issues are only going to be exacerbated now the caps are being rolled out to ambulance trusts as well.

"We want to pay paramedics a good wage and provide a good service to patients, and we would hate to see these caps get in the way of that,” David Cranmer, MD at specialist healthcare agency, Medicnow, said. “Like other parts of the healthcare sector, there is an acute shortage of paramedics and caps and controls on agency pay will only serve to drive more ambulance professionals away from working in the NHS via Medicnow into the private sector.”

"The caps will do nothing to reduce the bills faced by the NHS as they will need to bridge demand by engaging private ambulance providers to maintain service levels,” Cranmer said.

The REC suggests a comprehensive approach to control spending in the NHS.