Labour reveals NHS Scotland’s £635 million bill for agency nurses …
by Lucy Ashton
Scottish Labour has pledged to end the SNP’s “wasteful and dangerous” mismanagement and support NHS staff with a real workforce plan, and revealed NHS Scotland has spent more than £635 million on agency nurses.
In the space of 10 years, an eyewatering £635,614,661 has been spent by NHS Scotland on agency nursing and midwifery staff to “plug the gaps of SNP failure”.
In that time, agency nurses and midwives worked a staggering 13.7 million hours in NHS Scotland.
Scottish Labour’s Anas Sarwar, right. pledged to deliver a real workforce plan for Scotland’s NHS to support staff and cut waste.
Scottish Labour will put in place:
- A 10-year workforce plan that links university places to training posts, jobs, and career development. Designed alongside the professions and with our new National Clinical Council, it will ensure that staff can have fulfilling careers and the health service has the safe staffing that it needs.
- Flexible working arrangements to help retain staff and allow experienced staff to stay in work for longer.
- A new NHS work requirement for future Scottish medical, dental, and nursing students so that those who are funded to train in Scotland must work for at least five years in Scotland’s NHS or social care, or pay back their tuition and bursaries.
Anas Sarwar added: “The SNP’s failed workforce planning costs our overstretched NHS millions and piles pressure on hardworking staff.
“Scotland cannot keep paying the price for SNP failure.
“After nearly two decades, John Swinney and the SNP, Scotland’s NHS is on life support and nurses and midwives are being asked to do the impossible.
“Nurses, such as the one pictured left, end their shifts exhausted.
“Scottish Labour will end the SNP’s wasteful and dangerous mismanagement of our NHS and deliver a real workforce plan.
“We will put in place a 10-year workforce plan to make sure our NHS has the staff it needs, we will make it easier for staff to stay in the NHS, and we will make sure people who train here stay here.
“We will support Scotland’s fantastic NHS staff and make sure resources reach the frontline services instead of plugging the gaps of SNP failure.
“The only way to fix the SNP’s mess and deliver a better future for our NHS is by voting for Scottish Labour on May 7.”
Top of page: Award-winning midwives at a Health Board presentation ceremony.