Scottish Labour has expressed concern at spiralling NHS costs under the SNP Government.
In 2011/12, doctors worked almost 80,000 additional hours at a total cost of almost £11 million.
In the first six months of 2012/13, more than 40,000 hours extra had been accumulated, at a cost of almost £6.5m a level on course to make this year’s overtime bill even higher than last.
In 2011/12, nurses worked more than 1.2 million hours beyond contracted hours at a total cost of more than £18m. In the first six months of 2012/13, almost 700,000 hours of overtime had been accumulated, at a cost of more than £10.5m.
NHS Fife listed no doctors for working beyond contracted hours but had nurses working 12,753 extra hours at a cost of £242,629 in 2011-12.
In the period from April to September 2012, nurses worked 8,148 extra hours at a cost of £160,844.NHS Forth Valley’s doctors worked 41,223 extra hours in 2011-12 at a cost of £576,797, and worked 19,541 extra hours at a cost of £303,608 from April to September 2012.
Their nurses worked 11,453 extra hours at a cost of £1,114,482 in 2011-12, and worked 6,252 extra hours at a cost of £577,950 from April to September last year.
NHS Tayside doctors worked 2,885 extra hours at an additional cost of £341,358 in 2011-12, and 1,279 extra hours at a cost of £40,031 from April to September 2012.
Their nurses worked 144,174 extra hours at a cost of £2,270,447 in 2011-12, and 77,399 extra hours at a cost of £1,156,727 from April to September 2012.
Labour’s Jackie Baillie MSP said: “Our nurses and doctors are working harder than ever, with fewer resources and reflects the fact that there are 2,500 fewer nurses and midwives in Scotland than when the SNP came to power.
“The longer our doctors and nurses work, the more likely they are to make mistakes. I am concerned that health boards are failing to recruit the right number of staff they need.
“What’s worse is when you rely on overtime, you end up paying more.
“In the first six months of this year alone, nurses have worked over one million extra hours at a cost of almost £11m, and that’s before the annual winter strain takes its toll. This can’t make sense financially.”
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: “Our figures show that in 2012 nurses worked less than six hours overtime each at a cost of £122. For the same period medical staff worked four hours’ overtime at a cost of £179.
“All territorial health boards across Scotland are seeing an increase in services funding over the next two years and will see a 3.3% funding boost next year to £9.1 billion that’s 1.3% above the rate of inflation. There are more medical professionals working in our NHS than in 2006.”