As per a report, the local health authorities have spent close to £100 million in trying to fill in the gap made because of lack of doctors at the hospitals. The report was made by the Northern Ireland Audit office (NIAO).

It advised that saving to the amount of £5 million could be made if at all the problem of shortage of doctors in the system. One of the solutions could be with the help of locums, who are doctors taken in for serving on a temporary basis.

These locums are now in demand since they are easily available because of the immigration law changes in terms of working hours. Most of the hospital managers who were interviewed said that sometimes they are left with no other choice but to go after the agencies just to ensure that patients are safe.

And as it would have been, it is putting a lot of extra cost of the health agencies. As per NIAO, an extra £100 million was paid to the locums in the last four years just to fill in the daily gaps.