2,566 nursing and midwifery posts unfilled, says Scottish Labour
The number of unfilled nursing and midwifery posts has ``rocketed'' in the last five years, according to Scottish Labour.
The number of unfilled nursing and midwifery posts has rocketed'' in the last five years, according to Scottish Labour.
The party said its analysis shows there has been a fourfold increase in the number of such unfilled posts in the NHS since 2011, rising from 579 that year to 2,566 in 2016.
Almost 600 posts have been vacant for three months or more this year, the figures show.
Labour health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: The foundations of our most valued public service are our NHS staff, but in the last five years the number of unfilled nursing posts in our NHS has rocketed.
A decade of SNP mismanagement of our NHS has created a workforce crisis with nine out of 10 nurses saying their workload has gotten worse and a third of NHS staff saying there aren't enough of them to do their jobs properly.''
He claimed the increase is down to Government policy. Health Secretary Shona Robison said the number of nursing and midwifery staff working in the NHS overall is up more than 4% since 2011.
She said: The increase in the number of vacancies is due to the creation of new posts in health boards, mainly as a result of information from our mandatory nursing workforce planning tools which help health boards to plan their staffing.
It's worth noting that compared to 2011 there are now almost 2,500 additional nursing and midwifery staff working in our NHS, an increase of 4.4%.
We are committed to training and retaining our nursing staff and last year we confirmed a 5.6% increase in trainee nurses and midwives for 2016/17 - a fourth successive rise.''