Every political party backed the Health and Social Care (Staffing) (Scotland) Bill in the Scottish Parliament, which will ensure that NHS boards make decisions on staffing on the grounds of safety, and use live data in workforce planning.
Several cross-party amendments were also passed on the final day of debate, including capping the amount spent on agency staff and giving senior clinicians more responsibility in co-ordinating safe care.
The College supports the Bill. We said:
We called on MSPs to ensure that the multidisciplinary nature of the bill is not diluted, and we are pleased that they have ensured this at stage 3.
We’ve also said that the views of clinicians should remain paramount and we emphasised that alongside the legislation, there also needs to be effective action at local and national levels to recruit and retain a world class medical workforce in Scotland.
With or without legislation, unless we urgently resolve the many rota gaps at trainee and consultant level and address trainee dropout rates, safe staffing levels will remain a dream rather than a reality.
Medical workforce gaps are a problem in all four corners of the UK. Therefore, The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh is committed to working with government across all four nations and other allied organisations to address issues around recruitment and retention such as consultant vacancies, rota gaps and trainee dropout rates, as a matter of priority.
We are also committed to working with partner organisations to promote innovative ways of working in the NHS.
