Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 17 November 2021
I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate. It is important that we set the context for the debate. Staffing levels in NHS Scotland are at an all-time high, after nine consecutive years of growth. As the cabinet secretary said, the Scottish Government has fully funded all places for Scotland-domiciled students who met the terms of their conditional offers from Scottish medical schools, and NHS staff numbers increased by 25,000 between 2006 and 2021. Last year alone, there was 3.6 per cent growth, with more than 5,000 more staff.
There is no doubt that there has been a rise in demand for services in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Scottish Government is investing in several ways to address the issue. It has established the national centre for workforce supply, with investment of £11 million. One of the centre’s areas of focus will be to offer boards expert advice in relation to labour market intelligence and to help to co-ordinate recruitment programmes.
That work needs to go hand in hand with social work recruitment. There is no doubt that Brexit has had a massive impact in that regard. In my constituency, staff have moved between the NHS and the care sector during the pandemic.
It is important to note that investment in medical and nursing education has been sustained during the pandemic. A record number commenced training in 2021: 4,206 people started nursing training and 1,138 people started in medicine. The numbers will rise further in the autumn. In addition, during the pandemic, work was undertaken with national bodies to ensure that as many former doctors, nurses and allied health professionals as possible who wanted to return to work could do so.
The Scottish Government has record staffing levels and the best-paid staff in the UK, having recently given staff a 3 per cent pay rise.
The proposed significant expansion in the number of trainee doctors underlines the Scottish Government’s commitment to support the NHS, not only in response to the pandemic but as we look beyond it and build resilience for the long term.
In addition, £32 million has been committed for a further 139 trainee doctor posts to support NHS services. In psychiatry, five posts will be recruited for a 2022 start, which will provide much-needed support for the delivery of mental health services in NHS Scotland. There will be a further 22 medical specialties that will benefit from the creation of additional training places, including clinical radiology, anaesthetics, clinical oncology, medical oncology, geriatric medicine and infectious diseases, along with neurology and respiratory medicine. The majority of those trainee doctor places will commence in August 2022.
Since 2014, 574 trainee expansion posts have been created in a wide range of specialties, 100 of which have been in general practice. The Scottish shape of training transition group, which is responsible for deciding on the number of trainee posts and the medical specialties in which they will be created, will be undertaking a similar process for 2023.
I want to touch on the Labour amendment, which mentions staff burn-out. That is an important issue. The Scottish Government is committed to safeguarding the mental wellbeing of the workforce and has committed an additional support package of £4 million for staff wellbeing. Having led a members’ business debate on mental health recently, I am aware that workers in health, social and social work experience higher levels of mental health problems than those in other groups, and that that has been exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. The additional funding will focus on the physical and mental needs of staff and will, of course, include provision for hot drinks, food and other measures to aid rest and recuperation.
Importantly, another £5 million has been committed to the establishment of a health and social care mental health network to enhance existing wellbeing and mental health provision, including the national wellbeing hub and the 24/7 national wellbeing helpline.
In conclusion, the level of new domestic training places for medicine is proportionately higher in Scotland than the level anywhere else in the UK and, with the measures that have been highlighted, that will continue to be the case. I urge members to support the Scottish Government amendment.
17:06