The Scottish Conservatives say money in the NHS is being “squandered” on external administration staff, as figures revealed spending on agency workers in non-clinical roles.
Since 2022/23, around £95.8 million was spent on bank and agency staff working in areas like administration, catering and estates.
The figure was obtained through freedom of information requests to Scotland’s health boards.
At a time when NHS frontline staff are at breaking point, Scots will be furious that health boards are spending millions on bank and agency shifts for non-clinical roles
The Tories said staff such as porters and caterers should be employed in-house to keep costs down.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Miles Briggs said: “At a time when NHS frontline staff are at breaking point, Scots will be furious that health boards are spending millions on bank and agency shifts for non-clinical roles.
“We’ve become used to the SNP’s dependence on temporary doctors and nurses because of their dire workforce planning, but it’s galling that taxpayers are paying over the odds for agency staff to do non-clinical NHS work too.
“Porters and catering staff play an important role but, where possible, they should be employed in-house to keep costs down.
“Bureaucracy accounts for too much of the NHS budget as it is, so it’s alarming that even more money is being squandered on external admin staff.”
The Scottish Government said use of agency staff in such roles is common practice.
A spokesman said: “NHS Scotland has made clear progress in reducing overall reliance on agency and bank staff across all roles, with health boards continuing to prioritise filling shifts through substantive employment and in-house staff banks wherever possible.
“The use of temporary staff in non-clinical roles such as administration, catering and portering will always be necessary to ensure essential services continue to run effectively and to cover absences – this is common practice across health services throughout the UK.
“Hospital activity is up and as a result we are seeing long waits for operations coming down.
“Thanks to our hard-working staff and targeted Scottish Government investment, we are building more capacity.”