Thousands of redundant NHS staff rehired
New figures indicate that almost 4,000 staff made redundant from the NHS in England, before last year's major restructuring, have since been re-employed.
Labour asked for the data to be released to Parliament.
The government blamed "unacceptably lax" contracts that allow staff to re-join the NHS a month after redundancy.
It says it's working on tough new plans to cap payouts, and has reduced administrative posts overall.
Labour shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said it would be galling for nurses who were battling over pay to see, as he put it, cheques handed out like confetti.
Auditors have previously reported that the average payout was £43,000.
The number of national health service staff estimated to have been made redundant and later re-employed almost doubled in the last year - from 2,200 managers - Ministerial responses to Parliamentary Questions have revealed.
The total now stands at 3,950.
Overall, more than 10,000 full-time workers were made redundant from the NHS in England since the restructuring of the service.
Changes introduced in April 2013 have seen 150 primary care trusts, run by managers, replaced with 211 clinical commissioning groups, led by family doctors.
Health Minister Dr Dan Poulter said: "By reducing managers and administrators by over 21,100, we are freeing up extra resources for patient care - £5.5 billion in this Parliament and £1.5 billion every year thereafter."