18.07.18
MSP leads calls to ‘handcuff’ junior doctors to prevent them from leaving NHS Scotland
A prominent member of Scottish Parliament has called on the government to “handcuff” doctors to continue working in the country.
Following a recent BMA survey last month which found that just 3% of Scottish doctors believe the NHS is adequately resourced and the service is “pushed to the brink,” Moray MSP Richard Lochhead called on the Scottish Government to introduce more persuasive methods to keep doctors who have completed or are completing their training in the country.
He explained: “We need radical interventions to effectively handcuff more doctors trained in Scotland at public expense to the Scottish NHS – at least for a set period of time.
“I believe this is what taxpayers expect, especially when higher education is free in Scotland.”
Lochhead argued that many young doctors will have less of an issue with the approach of keeping talent in the area than NHS bosses or government ministers believe to be the case.
His calls come after Dr Gray’s maternity hospital in Elgin was downgraded due to staff shortages, meaning all medium- and high-risk births will be transferred to surrounding areas in Aberdeen or Inverness.
Shortages in staff have been common across the NHS nationally: in May, nurses opened up about “scandalous and cruel” staff gaps that pushed them into new careers. And just today, shocking new information found that a third of NHS trusts have at least one vacant director role due to a “near-toxic” cocktail of pressures.
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “We have agreed to shorten the training of a number of advanced nurse practitioners from two years to one year in order that these nurses can contribute to the safe running of a paediatric and neonatal service as soon as possible. We are working to recruit new talent and retain existing staff to provide the right skills and experience to meet patient demand.
“We recognise the need for more doctors in Scotland and have taken a range of actions to increase the number of medical undergraduate places in Scotland. By 2020 the intake will have increased by 22% from the 2015 level.
“We have also published details of a further 85 medical undergraduate places to be introduced from 2019. This is in addition to 50 widening access places introduced in 2016 and 55 Scottish Graduate Entry Medicine Programme places commencing later this year.”
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Image credit: Richard Lochhead