Scottish NHS boards pay up to £837 an hour for locums amid psychiatry crisis

Quarter of posts in adult psychiatry vacant, forcing hospitals to rely on expensive private cover

Scotland's health boards have paid up to 837 an hour for locum psychiatrists to help cope with a deepening staff shortage crisis in mental health services.

They have been charged more than 130m by dozens of private health care companies to provide temporary psychiatrists over the past five years, including one firm now owned by two billionaires from Texas.

Annual spending by Scotland's 14 health boards on locum psychiatrists reached nearly 35m last year, up from 20m five years ago.

NHS Tayside has spent more than 30m since 2019, and NHS Fife nearly 26m.

One company charged NHS Lothian nearly 350,000 for 416 hours of cover in 2019, at an average hourly cost of 837.

NHS Western Isles paid 27,000 for one week of round-the-clock cover in April 2023.