SNP NHS MISMANAGEMENT REVEALED

A damning Audit Scotland report has revealed the scale of the SNP’s mismanagement of our NHS.

The report details the SNP staffing crisis in our health service, which began under Nicola Sturgeon when she was Health Secretary.

It states:

• There has been a 107 per cent increase in agency spending from 2011/12 to 2016/17 – from £82.8 million to £171.4 million.
• One in three NHS staff are now over the age of 50.
• There is a 4.5 per cent vacancy rate among nurses and midwifes – up from 1.8 per cent in 2011/12.
• There is a 7.4 per cent vacancy rate among consultants – up from 3.6 per cent in 2011/12.

This report reinforces our warnings that the SNP has presided over a workforce crisis in our NHS, leaving staff over-worked, under-valued and under-resourced.

Staff morale is at rock bottom in the health service, with staff reporting there simply aren’t enough of them to do the job properly.

As Audit Scotland confirms, this is part of the legacy left by Nicola Sturgeon who as Health Secretary slashed the number of training places for nurses and midwives.

Scotland now has a Health Secretary, Shona Robison, who is out of her depth and out of ideas. That is why our health service is in desperate need for a meaningful workforce plan.

We have established a workforce commission that will bring together professionals from across the NHS, representing different sectors, who will together examine the underlying causes for this staffing crisis and develop a strategy to tackle it.

You can read more about our workforce commission here

Read the Audit Scotland report here

We need a government that will fix the problems in our NHS. Agree? Join the Labour Party here