It states that high levels of workforce vacancies in nursing have led to increased expenditure on temporary staff with a 93% rise in the cost of bank and agency nursing staff since 2017. It refers to the RCN’s 2022 survey on staffing levels which found that 86% of nurses in Scotland thought that the number of nursing staff in their last shift was not sufficient to meet the needs of patients safely and effectively.
The report’s conclusions include calls on the Scottish Government and NHS boards to focus on staff retention, as well as recruitment, and urgently complete work on modelling demand and capacity in the NHS in Scotland to inform planning for future service delivery. It also calls on the Scottish Government to be more transparent on progress towards service recovery.
Audit Scotland also states that “the proposed National Care Service will place a huge strain on the health and social care budget”, with the current plans representing “a significant unknown financial commitment”. This week RCN Scotland wrote to the Minister for Mental Wellbeing and Social Care, Kevin Stewart MSP, calling for the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill to be paused and for the Scottish Government to take more time to adequately consider and co-design the details of these plans with stakeholders, in advance of legislating.
Colin Poolman, Director, Royal College of Nursing Scotland said: “This report is clear that tackling the workforce crisis is key for NHS recovery. We need effective workforce planning that is based on population need, implementation of Scotland’s safe staffing legislation and fair pay that truly reflects the safety critical role that nursing staff play.
“We are calling for a Nursing Retention Strategy for Scotland that sets out a plan to tackle the exodus of nursing staff from our profession – this must be a priority for Scottish Government’s new Nursing Taskforce.
“We completely agree that there also needs to be an open and honest discussion about the ongoing level of investment, and new ways of working, that will be required to meet the growing demands on Scotland’s health and care services.”
