Scottish health boards have recruited over 1,000 additional support staff, and just under 200 registered nurses from overseas, as the NHS continues to face unprecedented adversity. The recruitment drive was launched last October by Health Secretary Humza Yousaf with a backing of £15m.
The new staff will be working in a variety of roles, both in acute hospitals and in community health teams, with all recruitment aligned with the Scottish Code of Practice for health and social care personnel.
Running alongside this support staff drive, a separate, £4.5m backed initiative is already underway with offers of employment being issued to over 190 nurses. Agreements are in place with recruitment agencies for a further 203, with staff being sourced from India to the Philippines.
Health and Social Care Secretary Humza Yousaf said: “The pandemic has been the biggest shock our NHS has faced in its 73 year existence. To help deal with Winter pressures and pressure brought on by the current Covid wave we are expanding and investing in our NHS workforce. Our hardworking and compassionate health and social care staff have been on the frontline of patient care throughout the pandemic and I am incredibly grateful to them all.”
He added: “In October, we set ambitious targets to boost the number of health care support staff and step up international nurse recruitment. I am delighted with the success of the recruitment campaigns and seeing the new staff already providing frontline patient care. Scotland has the best paid NHS staff in the UK and record workforce levels, with more than 155,000 whole time equivalent staff now working in the service. We are determined to continue this progress as we recover from the pandemic.”
He concluded: “Our National Workforce Strategy for Health and Social Care commits to understanding how we can achieve a more sustainable, skilled workforce which makes careers in health and social care – at all levels – more attractive.”
The aforementioned recruitment campaigns are said to demonstrate Scotland’s commitment to ethical recruitment to protect the healthcare systems of developing countries.
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