Public spending on private nursing agencies to plug gaps in Scotland’s NHS has rocketed in recent years, according to new figures.
Nurses’ unions claim a staffing crisis is leaving their members weighed down by severe stress and has led to outside companies being paid handsomely to fill gaps in rotas.
Health boards across the country, many of which are implementing brutal cut backs because of budget pressures, have paid almost £60 million in just five years for private nursing cover.
Fife’s bill shot up by almost 52,000% from £2,219 in 2011/12 to £1.15 million in 2014/15, while Tayside spent £5,062,099 on private agency nurses in 2014/15, the most in the country, compared to £567,289 in 2011/12.
Scottish Labour, who obtained the figures, said they proved the SNP had lost control of the staffing crisis.
Health spokesman Anas Sarwar said: “We are in the middle of the biggest nursing crisis in the history of the NHS, yet the SNP health minister appears determined to stick her head in the sand and deny a problem even exists.
“More than 2,200 nursing vacancies is a shameful statistic. It leaves our dedicated nursing staff under extreme pressure, and it’s not fair on them or patients. It’s high time Shona Robison got a grip.”
Norman Provan, assistant director of the Royal College of Nursing in Scotland, claimed there has been “an explosion of agency nurses over the last three years”.
He said: “When austerity hit, the money coming into the service began to reduce and health boards made difficult decisions on staffing.
“Increases flatlined and that affected decisions on how many nurses to train. And now, because of the boards’ short sightedness, there are simply not enough nurses to do the job.”
Mr Provan added: “They (nurses) are expected to do more with less all the time. It’s incredibly stressful to work under that pressure.
“And if something goes wrong, you can bet the nurses, not the management, will end up taking the hit.
“Nurses don’t feel they have the resources to do the job properly, or with the level of quality they would like.”
Shona Robison, the Health Secretary and Dundee City East MSP, said agency staff accounted for only 0.4% of the NHS workforce, and the total spent on agency nurses and midwives was 11.3% lower than a decade ago.
She claimed there were now more than 2,300 more qualified nurses and midwives than when the Government took office, and the number of training places in 2016/17 had risen for the fourth year in a row.
Ms Robison added: “We know more needs to be done to reduce agency use. Earlier this year we launched a new initiative to drive down the cost and use of all temporary agency staff.”
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