Shortages pushing NHS Scotland to the brink, warns BMA chair
dailyrecord.co.ukScotland’s NHS is under immense pressure. From shortages across general practice to hospital consultants, there are simply not enough doctors in Scotland, writes Dr Iain Kennedy, chair of the British Medical Association (BMA) in Scotland.
Demand is outstripping capacity and doctors, as well as other healthcare workers, are being pushed beyond what we could or should expect of them.This is making things worse for patients, faced with unacceptably long waits for care – or services that simply aren’t able to deliver as they should.A&E waiting times are among the worst we’ve seen, delayed discharge causing huge problems at the front doors of our hospitals because our social care system also doesn’t have the capacity to cope with the number of people who need to come out of hospital and into community care.There is not a single area of our health system across Scotland that is not under pressure in some shape or form.Recruitment and retention of senior medical staff across the NHS in Scotland is one of the biggest challenges facing the health service currently.Every vacant position increases the pressure on overstretched staff and erodes the ability of the NHS to provide the level of care that Scotland’s population requires.Not only that but it severely impacts the high level of training received by colleagues at earlier stages in their career.It was recently revealed that there are 511 vacant consultant posts in Scotland – but FOI data from BMA Scotland last year suggested that the true figure could be almost double that.My GP colleagues are reporting similar issues – funding cuts mean many practices are unable to recruit despite being in need of at least one extra GP, and the additional workload pressure is forcing many to
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