£1.5 million for consultant help
NHS Lanarkshire shelled out over £1.5 million last year flying up English consultants in a bid to cut waiting times.
That ’s because of a shortage in specialist doctors and an “inability to recruit”.
The health board told the Wishaw Press they shelled out more than £1,535,592 to fly in top docs from Birmingham-based Medinet to run weekend out-patient appointments.
And it now transpires Medinet have been used since 2016 to cover weekend working across NHS Lanarkshire’s three sites, including University Hospital Wishaw.
Prior to this, health chiefs say the service was provided by its own in-house consultants.
Sources told the Wishaw Press that a “desperate shortage” of senior consulting staff was the root cause for the dire backlog in out-patient appointments.
Indeed, things got so bad, the health board would have repeatedly missed waiting time targets had it not been for extra staff from south of the border.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: “This long-term reliance on private providers to run NHS Lanarkshire clinics is privatisation by the back door.
“Under the SNP, persistent staff shortages are endemic throughout the health service and people across Lanarkshire are raising concerns with me about waiting times every single week.
“This is no reflection on the hardworking NHS staff who are having to do more and more.”
The huge additional funding makes for bleak reading on the health board’s coffers, with bosses having already forked out an eyewatering £12.3m on locum cover in 2018/19.
Statistics on Scottish Government’s Information Services Division (ISD) show that to be an all-time high and more than double the £5.3m fee of just five years ago.
Opposition parties are now calling for the “workforce crisis” to de dealt with “urgently” with Labour going as far as claiming use of a third party is “privatisation through the back door”.
Tor y MSP Graham Simpson said: “It is deeply concerning to see real issues with consultant recruitment within NHS Lanarkshire.
“It is clear that NHS Lanarkshire does have hiring issues to deliver the required level of care. It is essential the NHS is properly staffed and funded so all patients receive the care they need.”
SNP MSP Linda Fabiani admits there were “difficulties a c ross Sc o t l a n d” in recruiting consultant staff on a permanent basis, adding that “patient s’ needs were being met” because of these weekend appointments.
Ju d i t h Pa r k, NHS Lanarkshire deputy director of acute services, told the News: “The clinics have been well-received by patients with a good uptake of the weekend appointments.
“These give patients improved choice, flexibility and convenience of appointment times.weekend appointments have also had a positive effect on our waiting times. This has been at a time when, like all Scottish health boards, we have had challenges recruiting consultant staff.”