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Gwent’s health board has spent £20.6 million on bank and agency nurses in the past year, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.

Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said the spend on temporary staff was due to staff shortages across health and social care.

The FOI request was submitted by Independent councillor Kevin Etheridge, who described the findings as “shocking”.

Cllr Etheridge, who represents Blackwood, said: “Going into winter this is very worrying and I think the Welsh Government ought to step in, we can’t leave this to the health board.”

The FOI revealed that the health board has not received any funding from the Welsh Government to cover the cost of bank and agency nurses specifically, but “some” Covid-19 funding has been used to cover it.

The councillor has written to the Minister for health, MS Eluned Morgan, to request additional funding for the health board. Cllr Etheridge said: “If this is happening in the ABUHB area, it must be happening elsewhere at other health boards in Wales.”

The Welsh Government has said it is investing “record levels” of money into training and professional education of health care workers.

A spokesperson for ABUHB said: “Since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been responding to unprecedented demand for patient care, as well as an increased number of patients with complex needs requiring more specialist treatment.

“The well-publicised staff shortages across health and social care throughout the UK, the additional demand for care, and staff sickness have resulted in staffing gaps that require regular use of bank and agency nursing staff.

“It’s important to note that many of our bank workforce are either permanent staff members working additional shifts, or are those who have worked regular shifts with us for many years but prefer to work flexibly via a bank arrangement. This is consistent with other NHS organisations and our regular bank workers form a fundamental part of our substantive workforce, which involves a substantially smaller cost to us than agency staff.

“We continue to rapidly recruit permanent staff, and are investing in record levels of training and professional education, with more training places than ever before.”

Of the health board’s 2,397 staff, 2,088 are assigned to banks.

In a statement, the Welsh Government said: “The NHS in Wales offers opportunities for nurses who wish to work more flexibly to sign up to work for the NHS organisations Banks where they benefit from national pay terms and conditions and can opt to work flexibly at times that suit them and in the familiar setting where they are more comfortable.

“There are more staff working in NHS Wales than ever before, and this year we are investing record levels in training and professional education, £262 million, including more training places than ever before.

“The workforce strategy, published by Health Education and Improvement Wales and Social Care Wales, sets out a long term vision for the health and social care workforce, and we are developing a shorter term plan to deal with current pressures.”