THE county's hospitals overspent nearly £17m on staffing costs the last financial year, despite cutting back on expensive temporary staff.

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation spent a total of £537.7m on paying its employees - £16.7m more than it the £521m it budgeted for, board members heard yesterday.[may11]

Board members heard the trust spent a total of £41.3m to plug staffing gaps with bank and agency workers during the 2015/16 financial year.

But they were told during the second half of the year OUH cut back agency spend £6.3m compared to the first six months.

Non executive director Christopher Goard called for a more detailed investigation into why pay costs had increased despite the cut in agency staff.

He added: "The additional spend of £16m is a large sum of money.

"That's happened despite the drop in the amount of money we are paying for premium staff which has gone down.

"I suspect this is a rather more complex issue than can simply be explained. I wonder if this might merit a more detailed investigation."

The government introduced a price cap in November on staffing agencies, which sets the amount they can charge hospitals per shift for doctors, nurses and non-clinical personnel.

Agency workers are generally more expensive than full- or part-time staff, and hospitals can rack up large bills by relying on them too heavily.

Nursing and midwifery staff accounted for half the amount OUH spent on agency workers at £21.4m, with medical and dental staff accounting for a further £10.2m.