Shortage of Army doctors forces MoD to hire hundreds of temporary medics at £700 a day

A shortage of Army doctors and nurses is forcing the Ministry of Defence to employ hundreds of temporary civilian medics at an average rate of more than £700 a day.

At least £8million was spent on locums last year to cover more than 12,000 shifts left short by the manning crisis.

Dozens of civilian nurses and a neurosurgeon have been deployed in war-torn Iraq and Afghanistan.

Experienced doctors are leaving the forces and new ones are becoming reluctant to join, partly because they earn less with the Armed Forces than they can make in the Health Service.

Latest Ministry of Defence figures reveal significant shortfalls in many areas of the Defence Medical Services.

There are only 240 consultants out of the 690 deemed necessary, 46 out of 97 anaesthetists, 20 out of 40 general surgeons and 16 out of 30 emergency nurses.

MP Mike Hancock, a Liberal Democrat member of the Commons Defence Select Committee, said: "There is a real crisis, but this has been there for a long time.

"Unfortunately, there is little or nothing they can do. If they could recruit them and keep them they would do it."

The cross-party defence committee recently heard that many doctors were discouraged from joining the forces by pay issues and the likelihood of separation from their family.

Brendan McKeating, chairman of the British Medical Association's armed forces committee, said doctors in the military felt they were paid less, particularly since new GP and consultant contracts came in.

GPs can expect to earn 4.8 per cent less in the Army over the course of their careers than they would at home, he told the committee.

Analysis by the British Medical Association shows that average pay is £17,000 a year less for GPs in the armed forces than for those working in the NHS.

The Army Families Federation has also raised concerns about the lack of provision of doctors and dentists overseas.

In a letter to Tory peer Lord Astor, Defence Minister Baroness Taylor disclosed that £9,747,000 was spent on contracts under which civilian locums were employed by the MoD in 2006/7.

However, £1,266,000 was for contracts that included services other than locums as well.

In total, 12,094 days' cover was required.

Up to four nurses have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan at any one time, the total number reaching 54 last year, as well as one civilian neurosurgeon.

These deployments accounted for £1,155,000 of the total cost of employing locums.

The MoD said in a statement: "Defence Medical Services have met all the operational requirements placed on them. There is no question of British forces deploying on military operations without the appropriate medical support."

It acknowledged a "problem" with manpower shortages, particularly in consultant and nurse specialities, but was taking steps to address them.

"In the current financial year we have continued to hire a small number of nurses for Iraq and Afghanistan operations and have hired one consultant neurosurgeon in Afghanistan for a three-month period," the MoD added.