A more than 250% rise in costs for NHS bank and agency staff in the north-east has been branded shameful.
Workforce statistics published last week confirm annual spending in Grampian reached £43.9 million – a major increase on the £16.4 million spent in 2014/15.
That figure is made up of £15.5 million on locum doctors to temporarily fill staff vacancies – a rise of 15.8% on the previous year.
A further £28.4 million was spent on bank and agencies nurses – an increase of 22.2%.
Meanwhile, bosses at NHS Highland spent £24.6 million.
This was made up of £10.5 million on locum doctors – a 16.4% rise – and a £14.1 million bill for bank and agency nurses that included a 24.3% increase on the previous year.
NHS being ‘completely mismanaged’
Across Scotland, £423.4 million was paid out in the 2021-22 financial year.
Scottish Conservative public health spokeswoman Tess White said the figures are “shocking and shameful”.
“They point to a health service which has been completely mismanaged on the SNP’s watch and, without urgent action, that is only going to get worse.
“It is simply unsustainable for our health boards to be shelling out millions upon millions on temporary staff at a time when they are already tackling an enormous backlog of patient operations.”
The North East MSP continued: “Our hospitals are crying out for permanent workforce yet the SNP seem content to allow this astonishing increase in spending on temporary staff to spiral out of control.
“We need to urgently see Humza Yousaf tackle the workforce crisis that is engulfing our NHS, otherwise this inefficient way of staffing operations within our health service is only going to get worse.”
NHS workforce soaring
The figures show the NHS workforce is at its highest level since at least 2012.
Some 181,723 members of staff work in the NHS, as of March 31 this year, rising from 153,426 in 2012 – a jump of 18.4%.
But vacancy rates remained high, with 6,209 whole time equivalent nursing posts available and 499 for doctors and dentists.
Meanwhile, Scottish Labour revealed Fife, Greater Glasgow and Clyde, Dumfries and Galloway, Tayside, and Lothian health boards have spent a total of £258.9 million on locum doctors since 2017.
‘Short-term fixes’
The party’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “Under the SNP, the level of vacancies for doctors and consultants is increasing, leaving huge gaps in services.
“But instead of addressing the problem they come up with short-term fixes.
“This recruitment crisis has happened because the SNP has spent 15 years mismanaging our NHS service.
What does the Scottish Government say?
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Spend on agency nursing in Scotland – utilised during the pandemic – represents less than 1% of the overall staffing budget with the majority of temporary staffing coming from the NHS Staff Bank, which has NHS staff on NHS contracts.
“Despite the pressures of the pandemic we have already delivered a record number of GPs working in Scotland, with more per head than any other country in the UK, and we’re committed to further increasing the number of GPs in Scotland by 800 by 2027.
“We are on track to meet that commitment and have also recruited over 2,400 healthcare experts through the GP Contract to support practices.
“We are fully aware of the difficult circumstances that boards and front-line staff are working in, which is why we have worked hard to ensure that our NHS maintains the increased numbers of staff we’ve seen over the past 10 consecutive years.”