NHS staffing crisis as vacancies rocket

Nursing and midwifery positions left unfilled

SCOTLAND’S health service is facing a ‘staffing crisis’ as nursing and midwifery vacancies soar.

New figures have revealed a 280 per cent increase in the number of unfilled positions in the past six years, while there has been a rise of more than 300 per cent in long-term vacancies.

Experts have issued a number of warnings in recent months regarding a looming crisis, with the number of doctors, midwives and nurses impacting patients and health care across Scotland.

The latest figures have been released by the Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland, which compiles statistics for the NHS north of the Border.

Its report shows that between December 2011 and December 2016, the number of nursing and midwifery vacancies soared from 661 to 2,525 – an increase of 281 per cent.

During the same time period, the number of long-term vacancies for nursing and midwifery NHS positions rose from 181 to 736 – an increase of 306 per cent.

The period from 2011 to 2016 covers the time when the SNP formed a majority government at Holyrood before it lost this to become a minority government in last year’s Scottish election.

Yesterday, Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘After a decade of division, the SNP has delivered a staffing crisis in our NHS. The number of unfilled posts for nurses and midwives has rocketed. SNP ministers are in complete denial about the fact that our health service does have the staff it needs to deliver the care patients deserve. Rather than looking to rerun a referendum campaign that Scots don’t want, the SNP should be focused on running our NHS.’

He went on: ‘This is the result of ten years of SNP mismanagement of our health service. The Nationalists slashed training places for nurses and midwives and cut funding for medical students and now our health service is feeling the pressure.

‘Labour will establish a workforce commission within weeks to look at these problems in the NHS and deliver solutions and tackle a decade of failure.’

Last week, the scale of Scotland’s waiting times problems was revealed when figures highlighted that cancer patients are being forced to wait more than 300 days to begin treatment for the disease.

A report showed that the Scottish Government had failed to meet cancer waiting time targets for four years, with patients waiting up to ten months for vital therapy and treatment.

But Health Secretary Shona Robison said: ‘There are more qualified nurses and midwives working in Scotland’s health service that ever before.

‘Under this Government, numbers have increased by 6.8 per cent to more than 43,800 whole-time equivalent.

‘Any fluctuation in nursing staff levels is due to our efforts to expand capacity by recruiting more staff.’

‘Ten years of SNP mismanagement’