Union protests over NHS staffing and RBS cuts
Trade union leaders have expressed serious concerns about vacancies within the NHS and the RBS’s decision to axe branches across Scotland.
At the Scottish Trade Union Congress meeting in the Highlands, where the number of vacant posts is among the highest in Scotland, support was given to attempt to tackle a “disturbing” shortfall in the number of consultants and radiologists.
Across Scotland, there were 430 consultancy vacancies last year, with two thirds of them empty for more than six months - triple the number of vacancies than in 2010.
Dr Bernhard Heidemann of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA), spoke on the issue at the Macdonald Aviemore Resort in Aviemore.
He said: “All of us know about staff shortages in the NHS.
“HCSA shares and supports the worries of all health professions in this regard, but the long-standing hospital consultant staffing crisis is particularly disturbing to our members.
“Against a backdrop of rising patient demand we are seeing an ever-growing disconnect between staffing need and staffing reality.
“For patients this means longer waits for diagnosis and treatment and the ever increasing pressure on over-stretched teams is a threat to the quality and safety of care.
“The failure to tackle this crisis also creates its own dynamic, driving ever more hospital doctors to consider their position as stress impacts on their well-being.
“What HCSA is calling for is a dedicated taskforce, involving medical trade unions, to head off this deepening consultant workforce crisis.
“Rather than continuing to be reactive, we need to assess future need and engage in workforce planning which will allow us to maintain a functioning NHS for our patients.”
In the Highlands, a working group has been set up to tackle the shortfall of radiologists, alongside a national recruitment drive announced earlier this year.
Health secretary Shona Robison said: “In the last 10 years NHS staff numbers have risen to record high levels, with more doctors and nurses now delivering care for the people of Scotland.
“Over the lifetime of this government NHS Highland staffing has increased by nearly 23 per cent and, nationally the number of consultant staff in post has grown by over 47 per cent, however we recognise that there are areas of acute shortage amongst this cohort.”
Meanwhile Scottish Labour Leader Richard Leonard and union members led a protest at Aviemore’s RBS branch on Tuesday lunchtime against the bank’s decision to axe branches in Scotland.
They include Aviemore which is due to close at the end of May and Grantown which is expected to shut its doors for the last time at the start of June.
