Ailing NHS short of 3,000 nurses

Vacancies at record high as agency costs soar

NURSING and midwifery vacancies have reached a record high in Scotland as sickness levels and agency spending soar.

Official figures show the number of vacancies rose by almost a third last year with nearly 3,000 nursing and midwifery positions left unfilled.

Yesterday NHS Information Services Division (ISD) Scotland warned that an increasing sickness rate had contributed to soaring levels of spending on agency staff, while a report highlighted a rise of almost 20 per cent in consultant vacancies in five years.

In the past year, health boards have been forced to spend £24.5million on agency staff – an increase of more than 4 per cent.

Scottish Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘These figures show Scotland’s NHS is being starved of almost 3,000 nurses, and it’s the SNP’s shambolic approach to workforce planning over the last decade that’s to blame.

‘In many cases, the only option for health boards is to spend tens of millions on agency and bank nurses.’

The ISD report shows nursing and midwifery vacancies rose by 27.5 per cent between March 2016 and March 2017.

There were 2,818 vacant positions for nurses and midwives in Scotland as of March 31, with 670 unfilled for more than three months.

The report states ‘the total number of vacancies is the highest ever reported by ISD’. Scottish Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: ‘This is the SNP’s NHS day of shame.

‘The sheer scale of problems shows that we have an NHS desperately needing support and resources from the SNP Government.’

The report also highlighted a 17.2 per cent rise in the number of medical and dental consultant vacancies over the last five years – with 5,189 unfilled posts in March of this year.

Scottish consultants committee chairman Simon Barker said: ‘With vacancies increas- ing and demand rising faster than resources, the Scottish Government’s consistent failure to value those consultants who are bearing the brunt of the gaps in the workforce, and failure to attract new consultants, will inevitably have a significant and negative impact.’

Health Secretary Shona Robison claimed that an increase in vacancies was a result of the ‘creation of new posts’, adding: ‘Earlier this year we confirmed a 4.7 per cent increase in trainee nurses and midwives for 2017/18 – a fifth successive rise.’