ANALYSIS

BARELY a week goes by without fresh warnings about the current and /or future state of the NHS in Scotland.

On Wednesday, Theresa Fyffe, the director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland, joined the chorus of voices sounding the alarm from Audit Scotland and medics to doctors, patients and, of course, politicians. Ms Fyffe claimed that the NHS in Scotland, as elsewhere in the UK, is surviving purely on the goodwill of its committed staff. Many of those staff – whose pay-rises have not matched inflation – will be dismayed to read their bosses spent a chunk of money on something that produced no results.

It is vital health boards hire the best leadership talent they can find. Stretched public finances all but guarantee the NHS will face more troubled times in the years ahead.

The NHS is struggling to fill vacant consultant, GP and nursing posts and yet is spending more on agency staff.

NHS chiefs must find a way of recruiting and retaining staff without wasting tax-payers’ money.