Staff do 11 million hours of overtime to keep NHS af loat

CHRONIC staff shortages in Scotland’s NHS have led to workers doing almost 11 million hours of paid overtime during the last five years.

The total bill racked up to cover the reliance on staff working extra hours came to nearly £230 million between 2017-18 and 2021-22.

But the true scale is likely to be higher as the statistics, compiled by the Scottish Conservatives under Freedom of Information rules, do not include unpaid overtime and one health board – NHS Forth Valley – failed to provide data.

The figures show the dependency on paid overtime is also increasing, year on year, by three separate measurements – the number of staff working overtime, the total number of hours worked and the annual bill.

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said the ‘staggering’ figures laid bare the consequences of the SNP government’s ‘awful workforce planning, and the enormous pressure it places on dedicated but overstretched staff’.

Research shows in 2017-18, 29,420 NHS staff worked a total of 1.9 million extra hours, at a cost of £36.3 million. By 2021-22, this had risen to 45,047 staff working 2.5 million extra hours, at a cost of £57 million.

Dr Gulhane said: ‘These staggering figures highlight the enormous toll the SNP’s mismanagement of the NHS is taking on heroic but shattered front-line staff.

‘Most of the crises in Scotland’s health service stem from personnel shortages. In nursing alone, there are over 6,000 vacancies in Scotland.

‘The blame for this mess lies with the awful workforce planning of successive SNP Health Secretaries.

‘It’s a measure of the dedication and professionalism of front-line staff that they are willing to work extra hours to help patients.’

Scotland’s nurses rejected a 5 per cent pay rise last month and union bosses say members are prepared to walk out for the first time.

Around 15,000 NHS workers left the service in Scotland in the year to March – the highest number in at least a decade.