Scottish Government failing to futureproof the nursing workforce
Alison Johnstone MSP, Health spokesperson for the Scottish Greens, today (25 Jan) highlighted comments from the Royal College of Nursing, who said that "the Scottish Government is failing to futureproof the nursing workforce."
Intake figures show there will be 142 extra student nurses across Scotland in 2017/18.
Alison said:
"Nurses in Scotland are under severe strain. There are pressing workforce shortages and we know that most nurses in Scotland are aged 45 or older so we need to prepare for future retirement rates.
"The pressure on our NHS will only grow without significant recruitment, and we also need to make sure that we are training enough nurses to fill posts in the social care sector. A shocking 28 per cent of nursing posts in the care home sector are vacant.
"If the Scottish Government is serious about shifting the balance of care towards community settings, then we must significantly increase the number of students we are training. Providing only 142 more student nursing places is nowhere near ambitious enough."