MERSEYSIDE health trusts spent millions of pounds on agency staff last year.

And a large chunk of the cash was paid out for staff to cover administrative duties.

Liverpool Primary Care Trust (PCT) gave nearly £5.9m to outside bodies in 2009-10 and bosses last night said they were trying to make savings.

Around £3.6m of this total was spent on medical staff, and other areas included money to auditors, PR agencies and solicitors.

Knowsley PCT paid £2.5m to agencies for “clerical and administrative support”.

The figures were revealed through Freedom of Information requests posted on the website Whatdotheyknow.

Agency staff generally cost more than workers directly employed by NHS trusts, but are more flexible if short-term cover is needed.

The Tax Payer’s Alliance last night said all trusts should reduce agency costs.

A spokeswoman for Liverpool PCT said: “As the organisation with responsibility for Liverpool’s NHS budget we oversee a huge amount of health care activity across the city, and in the course of this work we sometimes need to bring in short-term support.

“This includes clinical staff – such as GPs and nurses – to ensure that front line services are maintained, as well as more specific technical and specialist staff. The amount spent on this area only represents a small amount (around 0.5%) of our overall budget, and we work hard to ensure that the organisation gets good value for money from all of its suppliers.