THE MP for St Helens North, has accused the government of continually “neglecting the NHS” after figures showed spending on agency staff at St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust has more than doubled since 2010.

Conor McGinn cited a Freedom of Information request showing that the sum spent at Whiston and St Helens Hospitals has soared from £4.8 million in 2010/11 to £10.7 million in 2016/17.

An increase in spending on agency nurses has driven up the figures. Data shows £500,000 £0.5m was spent in 2010/11 but that rose to more than £2 million in 2016/17.

Mr McGinn says the figure is set to increase for the last financial year too.

Instead of taking action to help hospitals reduce bills and hire more nurses, the government has scrapped student nurse bursaries – meaning nursing applications dropped by a quarter in 2017.

The MP said the drop in nursing applications and the increase in spending on agency staff shows that the NHS Trust is being forced to spend more to plug staffing gaps.

Mr McGinn told the Star: “Spending on temporary and agency NHS staff has soared on this government’s watch and it just goes to show that you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

“Despite the best efforts of our local health trust, hardworking and dedicated NHS staff in St Helens have endured years of real terms pay cuts as prices have risen, while the amount spent on agency staff has more than doubled to meet the increasing demand.

“This is a direct result of this government’s failure to properly run our NHS, and the decision to scrap student nurse bursaries will make matters worse, with a quarter fewer nursing course applications last year alone.”

“A dependence on agency workers to plug staffing gaps is bad for the long term future of our NHS and the government should commit to turning these numbers around and recruiting more permanent staff as a matter of urgency.

“Local trusts like St Helens should not have to fork out to fix a problem created by the Tory government in London.”

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “While the NHS has saved £700m on agency staff spending in 2016/17, NHS Improvement continues to work with trusts across the country – including St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust – to further reduce agency reliance and we expect trusts to use this support to drive down agency costs and improve workforce planning for NHS staff.

“From this year we will train 25 per cent more NHS nurses, are committed to helping them work more flexibly to improve their work/life balance, and have awarded a pay rise of between 6.5 per and 29 cent in a deal backed by the Royal College of Nursing themselves.”