Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 17 November 2021
I thank Dr Sandesh Gulhane for securing time for this important debate. It is dispiriting that, once again, it is Opposition time that has been given over to the workforce crisis in our health service, particularly after the warnings that were given to the Scottish Parliament’s Health, Social Care and Sport Committee this week. Nonetheless, I congratulate Dr Sandesh Gulhane and assure him of the support of the Liberal Democrats at decision time, notwithstanding the caveats that Jackie Baillie rightly raised about the complete removal of the cap. However, I support his intent. Likewise, we will support Labour’s amendment.
A person’s decision to dedicate their life to joining the medical front line is a noble one, but it can also feel like a thankless one. As the past 19 months have highlighted, if they make that decision, they choose a career that is defined by self-sacrifice and perseverance in incredibly demanding circumstances. People who enter the profession do so because they care passionately about serving our sick and our vulnerable. There is no higher calling in our society. We are very fortunate to have so many such people in Scotland, but evidence shows that we are losing them. We cannot afford to do so in the current context.
This May, the BMA released a report that said that 15 per cent of consultant roles in Scotland could lie vacant. To put that into perspective, that is an entire large hospital’s complement of consultancies, should we not fill them.
At the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee last week, the Royal College of General Practitioners told us that there is an enormous strain on the workforce. As a result, individuals are having to choose between sacrificing their profession or sacrificing their wellbeing. At the same committee meeting, the Royal College of Nursing told us that nurses in Scotland face a similar struggle, which has led to a significant issue of retention in the nursing workforce.
That is just not acceptable. No one should have to choose between their profession and their mental health. As a result of that choice and other factors, front-line medical professionals are choosing not to work in Scotland and are instead deciding to work south of the border or abroad, or they are giving up their professions entirely. We must do more to prevent that, given how much we have invested in those individuals.
A key part of the solution lies in planning for our workforce. As we are being told, the Scottish Government’s workforce strategy is not equipped to deal with the crisis that our NHS is experiencing. Members should remember that this is the same Government that delivered its integrated workforce plan a whole year late. That is why the Scottish Liberal Democrats have called for the presentation of an annual workforce report to debate in this Parliament, which would include a study of reasons why newly qualified staff leave NHS Scotland to work elsewhere.
Moreover, we need to look at the way that we deal with people who work in our NHS—the way that they suffer burn-out and the way that we are not supporting them with their mental ill health. We need to do that from the very start of their career in the NHS. Currently, just over half of medical students at our universities are Scottish. We must ensure that Scots who wish to train and work on the NHS front line are equipped and incentivised to do so.
It should be no surprise that there are severe burn-out and mental stress issues, which may be off-putting. Among ambulance staff alone, mental health absences are up 300 per cent since 2017 according to a freedom of information response that was received by the Scottish Liberal Democrats. That is why we have called for a substantive mental health package for front-line staff to help to deal with the crisis.
The crisis is one that has grown under a complacent SNP Government. Perhaps we should not be surprised. After all, it is the same Government that is led by a First Minister who, in her tenure as health secretary, cut 300 student nurse places, claiming that it was the sensible way forward. That was not a sensible way forward, and we are reaping the rewards of that whirlwind now. Restricting training places, neglecting strategy and not providing staff with adequate support is not a sensible way forward in anybody’s book.
The NHS is one of the most vital services—if not the most vital service—in our country. The people in it provide a service that we could not do without. Front-line staff deserve from this Parliament the same unwavering care, effort and support that they have continually shown to our country.
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