No long-term plan for future NHS workforce, MSPs are told

There is no single long-term plan for the future workforce needed for the NHS, a senior healthcare figure has told MSPs.

Holyrood’s Public Audit and Post-Legislative Scrutiny Committee took evidence from senior NHS staff on Audit Scotland’s latest annual report on the health service which found Scotland’s health “is not improving” as the NHS faces “significant challenges”.

Creating a comprehensive, costed approach to workforce planning to help achieve the more fundamental reform needed to address concerns such as missed targets, longer waiting times and increasing pressure on budgets was one of the key recommendations in the report, published last week.

Tim Davidson, regional implementation lead for the east of Scotland, told the committee: “There is no plan, I think, across Scotland or the UK that accurately at this stage describes what a redesigned health and social care workforce might look like for the future.

“That is the huge challenge the Auditor General is throwing down in her report.”

He said there is high level agreement on the need for workforce reform and longterm planning but health boards and government are “still a long way off” turning that into roles with job descriptions and pay rates.

Deputy committee convener Liam Kerr said: “Did you really just say to me that there is no plan? That we’re sitting here with a crisis and there’s no plan in existence to sort it out?”

Mr Davidson, who is also NHS Lothian chief executive, said health boards and government had to “collectively hold our hands up” to failing to have a long-term plan in place.