A HEALTH trust has vowed to tighten up its rules on the use of stand-in medics after it was revealed that £830,000 was spent on employing locum doctors last year.

An auditor's report has urged Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley NHS Trust to reduce its locum cover in a bid to cut the financial and clinical risks.

The trust has now drawn up a 21-point action plan to tighten up guidelines surrounding the employment of locum doctors.

Dr David Grimes, the trust's medical director, said he did not like the trust being "so dependent" on locums.

He said: "One of the things we are looking at is to use locums who we know so they are not strangers coming into hospital.

"It would be better if we used people whom we have given references to."

The value for money audit by KPMG showed that between 1994/95 and 1996/97 the trust's spending on locums increased by two per cent.

The main reasons for using locums were to cover sickness, holidays and staff vacancies.

But the report revealed that for 19 per cent of the locum expenditure no reason was recorded.

Senior house officers and registrar grades accounted for the biggest proportion of locum hours and expenditure when reviewed.

The report showed that anaesthetics, obstetrics and gynaecology used the greatest amount of medical cover.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.