Fears that Scotland’s hospitals are facing a consultant crisis have been raised after new figures revealed vacancies are on the rise.
BMA Scotland, the professional body for doctors, yesterday expressed “grave” concern for services as official statistics published by ISD Scotland highlighted a 25.5% increase in vacant whole time equivalent (WTE) consultant positions between March 2014 and March this year.
The number of WTE posts went up from 324.8 to 407.6 in that 12-month period, while the number of posts vacant for six months or more shot up by 86.4% – from 79.2 to 147.7.
And Dr Nikki Thompson, who chairs the BMA’s Scottish Consultants Committee, said she reckoned the official figures were still significantly underestimating consultant vacancies across the country.
“Consultants, in post and working, are vital to patient care,” she said.
“Jobs unfilled after months on end puts huge pressure on services as remaining consultants struggle to cover the gaps.
“Consultants in Scotland are utterly committed to their patients, and to the health service, but the vacancy problem is getting worse, and we cannot continue like this.
“The Scottish Government must recognise that they have a major recruitment and retention problem, and take action to value the consultants we have, and attract those others that patients and services desperately need.”