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Consultant vacancies in Scotland shoot up by 17% in one year

Vacancies in consultancy positions have shot up over the past year in Scotland, prompting doctors to call on the government to improve efforts to retain and recruit staff into the profession.

Figures released by the Information Services Division Scotland, an arm of NHS National Service Scotland, revealed that consultant vacancies saw a 17.6% rise from March last year to March 2017.

This amounts to over 400 positions remaining unfilled in March, an increase from 355 positions the year before. It also follows figures earlier this month that found that one in four Scottish GPs currently had vacant positions.

The latest figures were described as “extremely disappointing” by Simon Barker, chair of the British Medical Association’s (BMA’s) Scottish Consultants Committee.

“The Scottish government is still not facing up to the problems of medical recruitment and retention in the NHS,” he said. “Need is considerably outstripping limited increases in capacity. It is not enough to create extra posts, they must be filled too.

“There are now over 400 unfilled consultant posts, leading to huge service stresses the length and breadth of Scotland.”

Barker added that almost half of these empty positions (over 200 of them) had been vacant for more than six months, making today’s figures even more concerning.

“This particular figure highlights the unsustainable difficulties that some specialities are experiencing in being unable to recruit and retain consultants,” he stated. “Despite repeated advertising these posts are not proving attractive to consultants. This is causing unrelenting pressure on those consultants currently working in the health service.”

The BMA committee chair also slammed the Scottish government’s “consistent failure” to value the consultants who are bearing the brunt of these vacancies under increasing patient demand.

“Failure to attract new consultants will inevitably have a significant and negative impact on our ability to continue to deliver a high-quality and sustainable health service,” he stated. 

“It is imperative that the Scottish government acts now, working with BMA Scotland, to demonstrate to existing consultants that they are valued; and to make new posts attractive so that we can continue to provide the kind of health service that our patients deserve.”

But the Scottish government have defended the figures, pointing out that Scotland’s NHS have more staff than ever before, up by over 12,300 under this government.

“NHS staff numbers have risen to record highs - with more consultants, nurses and midwives now delivering care for the people of Scotland,” said health secretary Shona Robinson.

“There are now over 12,300 more staff working in our NHS, with nearly 1,000 of these recruited in the last year,” she said. “These extra staff will ensure people all across Scotland get the high-quality NHS services that they rightly expect.”

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