Meeting of the Parliament 14 January 2015
If Mary Scanlon wants to write to me about that particular patient, I will look into the circumstances.
I am not saying that this is the only answer, but it represents a significant shift. As Mary Scanlon will know, if there are two systems with two different budgets, there is sometimes a perverse incentive not to move someone out of one system. That is a difficulty, and bringing those two systems together will be a real step change in tackling this problem.
With regard to workforce, the NHS is a huge organisation, employing in excess of 159,000 staff, and it offers those staff the opportunity to work in a world-class, modern and well-equipped healthcare system. Of course, we have a good record in staffing, and I am absolutely determined to highlight that as often as possible. The staffing total itself is up by 7.6 per cent, but within that, we should look, for example, at the number of consultants, which Richard Simpson referred to. Up 36.8 per cent, NHS consultants are now at a record high and, having listened to the Royal College of Emergency Medicine and taken on board what it had to say, we have increased A and E consultants by more than 173 per cent.
As for nurses, the number of qualified nurses is up more than 1,700—and there are more to come. In the past year alone, the number of nursing and midwifery staff rose by more than 1,000, and board projections indicate a further increase of more than 400 nursing and midwifery staff by the end of the current financial year and a further 500 community nurses coming into post over the next two years. In short, we have 1,700 nurses already delivered and 1,000 nurses being delivered.
We expect boards to have rigorous recruitment processes in place to ensure that posts are filled appropriately and that they have the correct mix and number of staff to provide safe, effective care. We are backing that up with significant investment. Only last week, for example, the First Minister announced that an extra £2.5 million will be invested in the specialist nursing workforce; we have already committed £41.6 million over the next four years to increase the number of community nurses substantially; and we will continue to look at ways of attracting the best talent to NHS Scotland. This is about real nurses in real posts, not about a general election slogan for short-term political expediency.
We need to make it clear, as the RCN has, that this is not just about nurse numbers, but about the whole healthcare system and the integration of health and social care. [Interruption.]