Government needs to change course on plans to ban flexible agency workers, including experienced doctors and nurses from being able to work in the NHS. If they do not rethink their plan not only will those wanting to work flexibly be punished, but so will patients who will wait longer for treatment.
 
Thousands of flexible agency staff support the NHS to function by filling workforce gaps everyday. Ideally there would be less shortages but we are a long way from having a workforce that can keep up with patient need. The NHS is in crisis and taking away the right for NHS Trusts to deploy skilled staff is political point scoring gone mad. With no discussion so far with the agency sector on staffing plans we urge the government to engage and to think about the impact of this short-sighted ban.