Agency staff are being paid about six times the amount of regular medical workers to fill health jobs in Oxfordshire.

Figures released today show NHS Oxfordshire, the county’s Primary Care Trust (PCT), paid up to £87 per hour for agency nurses and doctors in 2009. The average NHS nurse earns around £13 per hour.

In the first seven months of the year, the PCT spent £2m on agency staffing – 5.7 per cent of its total staff spending bill.

According to the figures obtained under the Freedom of Information act by the Conservatives, the trust has also paid up to £40 per hour for non medical staff such as speech and language therapists, with the equivalent annual salary estimated at £70,799.

The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust also paid about £44 per hour for agency nurses, £88 per hour for doctors, and £33 per hour for non medical staff.

In the first six months of the year the trust spent £1.1m on agency staff – two per cent of the total staff budget.

A spokesman said the trust only used agency staff when absolutely necessary to cover periods of staff sickness or recruitment gaps.

A spokesman for NHS Oxfordshire said extra services had led to the need for more staff.

He added: “New programmes at both Bullingdon and Huntercombe prisons along with added stroke support services have led to the need for more agency staff.

“The added burden of the swine flu pandemic has meant that extra temporary staff were needed to fill vacancies left by permanent staff changing roles.”

The Ridgeway Partnership, formerly the Oxfordshire Learning Disability NHS Trust, paid £45 per hour for agency nurses, and £25 per hour for non medical staff.

No one from the trust was available for a comment.