The NHS in-house temporary staff agency, NHS Professionals, has been relaunched as a Special Health Authority, with the goal of reducing the usage of agency staff in every NHS trust in the UK.

“We’ll be seeking to alter the staff usage from agency to bank and maximise the utilisation of available staff,” said chief executive Carmel Flatley, announcing the authority’s assault on the £1bn-plus spent each year by the NHS on temporary staffing. After one year in the London scheme, the Ilford trust has already halved its use of agency staff.

At the moment NHS Professionals has 1.2m shifts registered with it each month and fills 70 per cent from its own bank.